Submit to God, Resist the Devil

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” James 4:7-10 

James had been discussing the sins of the Saints and here calls for commitment, cleansing, and contrition related to them. First, submit to God and resist the devil. Submit here is a military term that means “get into your proper rank”. Resist here means to “take a stand against”. Satan will flee if we resist him, he has no power over us as Christians except to tempt us to sin to which we do not have to submit. Ephesians 4:27 tells us to not give place to the devil, rather we submit to God. We have the spiritual power to do this if we desire.

Second, when we do sin, draw near to God by confessing our sins and asking for cleansing. God is not put off by our sins, as much as he hates them, but only wants us to continually pursue holiness. “Cleanse” and “purify” here are verbs that refer to ceremonial cleansing. As we confess our sins His blood cleanses us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9-10). Further, God graciously draws near to us when we deal with the sin in our lives that keeps Him at a distance. He will not share us with anyone else; He must have complete control.

Fourth, humble yourselves before God and He will lift you up. One mark of true humility is facing the seriousness of sin and dealing with our disobedience. “A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17). After we humble ourselves and confess our sins God will restore our relationship to Him and lift us back up to stand without shame before Him. He has took our sins upon Him. Our sins will be remembered by Him no more (Psalm 103:12).