Resist the Devil

James 4:7–10 | Caleb Suko

James 4:7–10

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

In these 4 verses James gives us the 10 commandments of spiritual warfare:

1. Submit to God
2. Resist the Devil
3. Come near to God
4. Wash your hands
5. Purify your hearts
6. Grieve
7. Mourn
8. Wail
9. Change your laughter to mourning
10. Humble yourself before the Lord

I. Submit to God first

James 4:7

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God.

The reality is that we are all living in submission to something or someone. We like to think of ourselves and freely living and making our own choices but all our decisions come out of submission.

Romans 8:7

7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

What are you governed by? Do you allow your appetites to govern you? Do you allow feelings of anger or bitterness to govern you? Do you allow others to govern you with lies about who you are? Do you allow yourself to be governed by substances like food or alcohol? Do you allow yourself to be governed by experiences?

The first step to resisting the devil is to turn to God in submission and recognize that you will never be able to resist the devil in your own strength. Let’s admit it, submission isn’t usually thought of as something positive. In fact, when we think of submission, we think of losing. In combat, sports submission is yielding to the opponent, and hence resulting in an immediate defeat. Submission is recognizing your opponent’s superior strength and fighting skills. No fighter wants to submit, they are forced into it, often by a chokehold or by an armbar or some other hold that puts the fighter into an extremely painful position.

We may think of submission as a negative thing in relation to fighting but when your opponent is obviously far bigger, stronger, and more skilled than you then submission is a good thing. Why? Because if you’re foolish enough to stay in the fight then you’ll end up dead.

However, when it comes to God submission is about a lot more than ending up dead. You see when you learn to submit to God, you are doing more than yielding to him, you are coming over to his side in the fight.

ὑποτάσσω

This word was a Greek military term meaning “to arrange [troop divisions] in a military fashion under the command of a leader”.

To submit to God means to willingly come under his authority, his power, his will, and his way in our life. God doesn’t submit us through chokeholds, he asks us to willingly and freely submit our life to him!

Submission to God is:

An act of trust: I trust God’s way and God’s rules in my life.

An act of humility: I admit that God knows better and does better than I.

An act of self-discipline: I bring my desires and behavior in line with God’s will.

An act of worship: I honor God as God and as the ultimate authority.

Verses 8–10 will give us a better picture of what submission to God looks like in our lives.

II. Resist the devil

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Do you believe the devil exists? He does!

Did you know that if you don’t resist him he will destroy you? He will!

Did you know that you can’t resist him unless you first submit to God? It’s true!

Some of us believe in God, but we don’t believe in the devil. At least we don’t live as if we believe in the devil. Others see the devil in everything and anytime they fall to temptation and give in to sin, they blame the devil when they should be blaming themselves.

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.” C.S. Lewis The Screwtape letters

We must admit that the Evil one is in this world and that daily he and his demons are influencing millions of people to do their will instead of God’s will.

1 Peter 5:8–9

8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Why is it important to recognize the existence of the demonic realm? Because, if we don’t we can be sure that we will fall to their evil attacks. On the other hand, we must take a Biblical stance on this. When we sin we are the ones to blame.

Also, we must not turn to some magical prayers or incantations in order to resist the devil, here in James we find a simple, straightforward solution to resisting and overcoming the devil in our lives. God wants us to be alert but not superstitious or living in fear. We have power through Jesus Christ to defeat every attack of the evil one and to live free from fear.

Colossians 2:13–15

13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

If you indeed trust in Jesus Christ, then the powers and authorities (demonic world) have been disarmed. They have no power to condemn you! They may threaten, they may tempt but their power is no match against the power of Christ and this forgiveness.

Your forgiveness is sure in Christ but nevertheless, Satan will try to attack us and it’s important to be ready for those attacks. The devil’s attacks are like small battles in a war that God has already won.

James tells us that we should resist or literally stand.

ἀνθίστημι

to set oneself against, to withstand resist, oppose

This is an active stance, not a passive one. Feet are planted, fists are raised, chin is tucked. You’re ready for the fight. At your back are your mind, your heart, and your soul. You are ready to protect the purity of your life and the foundation of your faith in God. You know that the attack can come from any direction. It may come from your work, from your studies, from your family. It may come in the form of anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, lies about yourself, lies about your past, lies about your future. It may come from anywhere in your life.

It will come, when you are tired when you aren’t expecting it, disguised as something else.

One of the ways Christians often let this evil into their life is through conflict, pain, and bitterness caused by selfishness, anger, and unforgiveness in relationships.

Ephesians 4:26–27

26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold.

Anger and bitterness towards others are a direct sign of a lack of submission to God. You see the more we submit ourselves to God the more we will value God’s opinion of ourselves and the less we will care about man’s opinion about ourselves. The less we involve ourselves with useless arguments about meaningless things said or done. Submission to God gives us a new value system. It removes our pride and in doing so removes our motivation to fight and argue with others.

On the other hand when you allow yourself to be drawn into arguments, when you allow yourself to be caught up with what he said and what she said about you, if you allow yourself to dwell on offenses and past conflicts, you will poison your own heart and open yourself up to many evils. This is truly a foothold for the devil. It’s a rot in our life that allows for all other sins to come in. More times than not when a man is unfaithful to his wife it’s because he was at first unforgiving to his wife, or angered by her, maybe he was selfish and thus felt mistreated by her. Unfaithfulness in marriage starts with the small things, it starts with unresolved anger and bitterness.

What about the person who began to abuse drugs or alcohol? Too often this is also the result of unresolved pains in our relationships, we have allowed the sun to go down on our anger, and unfortunately, our souls went down with the sun! Thankfully, there is a solution.

Ephesians 6:13

13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

Paul uses the same word as James, “stand” or “resist.” Peter also uses this same word in relation to the devil.

1 Peter 5:8–9

8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

How do we resist the devil?

First, we must submit our lives to God and get on God’s side of the battle. Don’t be confused about whose side of the battle you are on and don’t be playing around on the front lines of the war!

Second, we need to be aware that the devil will attack. I didn’t say we need to be afraid or worried, or scared! Why would you be afraid when you’ve got the all-powerful Lion of Judah on your side?! We need to be aware, to be watchful, to shore up our defenses and strengthen our supply lines. The Christian has no better defense than his Bible, his Church, and his prayer closet.

Third, we need to be ready to respond to the attacks and to stand firm, and not give up any ground. How do we do this? The next few verses show us what it looks like to successfully resist the devil.

III. Come near to God

Come near to God and he will come near to you.

When I was 17 years old I had the unique job of overseeing the upkeep of a mansion in our town. This home was built around a theater organ with 3000 pipes and they could easily seat 300 people in their living room for a concert. The deck alone had 3 or 4 times the square footage of any house that I’ve ever lived in. In fact, the house was so large that a whole family could easily live in one area and the other occupants would never see them, hear them, or even know that there was someone else living in their home.

Sadly, this type of living arrangement can describe the spiritual lives of many. We are part of God’s household yet we live in a far-off corner somewhere, coming and going on our own without ever really coming near our Heavenly Father.

I listened to many Christians who are struggling with difficulties and they ask, “why is God so far off? I can’t feel his presence anymore.” Unfortunately, some Christians live as if they were on the edge of the presence of God. They believe in him but they don’t particularly like him. They know he’s there but they’re not so interested in conversing with him. Then when they have difficulties they wonder why God is so far off.

God promises to never leave or forsake his children (Heb 13:5). If God is far off it’s not because God just decided he didn’t love you anymore, it’s not because God forgot about you, it’s not because someone else is preventing God from coming near to you. God is far off only because we haven’t taken the time to come near him!

If God is everywhere how can you come near to him?

This is speaking of a relational nearness and not of spatial nearness. To say that God is near is to say that you are in good relation to him. You are living within his principles, you are communicating with him and he is communicating with you. You hold no bitterness towards God and there is not unrepentant sin between you. In other words, your relationship with God is unhindered by sin, guilt, and bitterness. You are daily walking with him in word and deed. What a joy to be in that state, what a peace of mind and heart to know that your relationship with God is solid!

We should also note that this is speaking of real nearness and not felt nearness. Too often we associate the presence of God with a feeling only. We can not deny that at times God reveals his presence through feelings of awe, terror, and joy. Yet, to measure his presence by feelings alone is a mistake. God’s presence is a fact in our lives, it is an unchangeable truth that we are called to believe. In this sense, we must remind ourselves of God’s nearness even when we don’t feel it.

Like many of us, King David struggled with feeling that God was distant from him.

Psalm 42:1–5

1 For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” 4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng. 5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

David recognized that his soul was in need of God. Do you recognize this?

David realized that he needed to repent in order to have his relationship with God restored.

David recalled the goodness of being in a right relationship with God.

David refocused his soul on the hope God promised him.

We need a spirit like David’s that comes near to God. Here are a few other ways that we can actively come near to God.

1. By calling out to him. (Psa 145:18)
2. By trusting in him.
3. By obeying him.
4. By learning about him.
5. By recognizing his work in our lives
6. By worshiping him
7. By loving him.

John 14:23

14 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

God is waiting for us to call out to him, he wants us to come near, he is not far off, and he is waiting for us as a father waits for his child.

IV. Wash your hands

Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

The second half of this section is really describing for us what true heart repentance looks like. James is exhorting us to change our minds and hearts about our sin and to come to God. In the end, the only thing that ever separates us from God is sin. Sin is the great wedge that divides man from man and man from God.

We need to remember to whom James is writing. He is writing to believers who had been scattered abroad to the nations around Jerusalem. Although he is writing to believers he uses strong language with them like, “sinners,” and “double-minded.” As believers in Jesus Christ, we have been forgiven, we have been given God’s grace for salvation and eternal life but that doesn’t mean we are perfect and it doesn’t mean we are immune to sin. As soon as we begin to think, “well, I don’t have that problem,” or “that’s never going to be a temptation for me,” we put ourselves into a dangerous position of spiritual pride and self-righteousness. In doing this we blind ourselves to possible temptations and are more likely to fall into sin.

James tells us that an important step in our repentance is to wash our hands. With the last year of pandemic, we have probably all washed our hands more than we are used to doing. Often when our family sits down for dinner I ask the kids, “did you wash your hands?” Sometimes there is a slight pause before they answer, “Yes.” When I sense this pause I usually ask a follow-up question. “When did you wash your hands?” Often the truth is they did wash their hands but it was this morning or maybe even yesterday. The point of washing your hands is to remove filth and possible germs that have accumulated while you were out and about and touching all kinds of contaminated things. For handwashing to be effective, it must be done often.

The washing of hands is a good illustration of how a Christian should live! We can talk about repentance as a one-time thing when we turn from our previous life and disbelief to Jesus Christ and put our faith completely in him. However, as we live we encounter sinful contaminants and in order to keep our relationship with God in good standing, we must make a regular practice of confessing those sins and asking God to remove them from our lives. This does not mean that we lose our salvation and then pick it up again every day. Rather it is the daily task of keeping our relationship with God pure and free of any sins that would cause that relationship to be strained and keep us from close fellowship.

Finally, James reminds us of the danger of being double-minded. Sometimes we use a similar term, “two-faced.” This is someone who claims to be God’s child but doesn’t sincerely believe in God’s promises nor does he follow God’s principles in his life. Earlier James also warned us about the dangers of double-mindedness.

James 1:6–8

6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

The reality is that you can’t be two faced before God because God sees your heart. He wants your heart to be pure and holy, he wants you to come to him and to ask him for the forgiveness that only he can give. Without this it is impossible to come close to God.

V. Change your attitude

Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom

Next James asks us to change our attitude. Now before you get carried away with this verse let’s not get the wrong picture. James isn’t saying that we have to walk around with our heads hanging low and sackcloth and ashes upon our heads all the time. James is speaking about a very specific attitude towards a specific thing in your life. He is speaking about your attitude about your personal sin.

I remember as a young kid if my parents caught me doing something that I shouldn’t do, they would get after me and give me some sort of punishment. Instead of acting sorrowful or asking for their forgiveness, I would often pretend that I really didn’t care about their punishment, like it was no big deal and had no effect upon me. Of course, this only ever worked for short periods of time. Eventually, they would get me to the place of sorrow one way or another.

How do you think about your own sin? How do you feel about your own sin? Do you feel worse about your sin than you feel about your friend’s sin? We ought to have the right heart attitude about our sin, one that comes from a biblical understanding of God’s holiness and justice. Isaiah exhibited this attitude when he saw God in his holiness on his throne and said,

Isaiah 6:5

5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

Isaiah was shamed and horrified by his sin. Exposure to God’s holiness brings horror over our own sin. Notice a few verses later that Isaiah didn’t stay in this “Woe to me” state. Rather he accepted God’s forgiveness and he moved on to faith and service to God! This is what we ought to do.

VI. Humble yourself

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Finally, James gives us one last piece of advice on how we can draw near to God. Humility is a requirement to be in God’s presence. This phrase is taken from the Old Testament where we see it repeated many times in many different ways. Possibly the first mention of this principle of the LORD lifting up the humble comes from Hannah in the book of 1 Sam.

1Samuel 2:8

8 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. “For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s; on them he has set the world.

God raised up Joseph from a prisoner in Egypt to the ruler of Egypt and the savior of many lives. God raised up David from a simple shepherd to a mighty king. God raised up prophets who were nobodies to change the course of nations like Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah. God even raised up Jesus from an insignificant town and an insignificant family to be the Savior!

What might God have in store for you if only you humble yourself before him! Our problem is we want to raise ourselves up and when we do so, God’s not going to fight for control.

In the end, humility is really nothing more than the recognition of God’s authority and will in our lives. When we realize how much better, wiser, and good God is and how much more skilled he is with our lives, we will quickly and willingly submit to him!

Conclusion:

Questions for self-reflection:

1. What areas of my life am I refusing to submit to God?
2. Where might Satan be attacking my life now?
3. What do I need to be doing to ensure that I am close to God?