Submit to God, Resist
the Devil
James 4:4-7 “….know
ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the
world is the enemy of God. Do ye think
that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to
envy? But he giveth more grace.
Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the
humble. Submit yourselves therefore to
God. Resist the devil and he will flee
from you.”
Submit yourselves
therefore to God and resist the devil and he will flee from you. The context is that of the natural human
nature that leads to wars and fightings that comes from lusts within your own
body. Worldly mindedness, natural spirit
in the natural man desires to envy, lust and pride but God giveth grace to the
humble. What are the three
symptoms? Lust, envy, pride. Satanic, straight from the devil. What are the two symptoms that are not
natural to us by birth? grace and
humility. Godly, like God. You are either like Satan or like God.
For a child of God
that has God's spirit and shows grace and humility, be warned: we have the remnants of our old nature still
alive in us, and that is why we are told to keep killing it each day. Keep mortifying the
flesh. It is still our natural
temptation to lust, envy and pride.
These things, thank the Lord, do not rule anymore as they did before we
were saved, they are against our natural inclination but these things are still
real temptations or why else have we this exhortation to submit yourselves,
therefore, to God and resist the devil and he will flee from you. In other words, the Christian life is a
continual spiritual battle against this former nature. The great temptation within us is to lust,
envy and pride and the great tempter, the devil, will attack us in these very
areas to fulfill our natural spirit's tendency.
We as believers must not submit to that.. we are given two battle orders
from God. Two things that a believer
must do in spiritual battle.
1. Submit to God
2. Resist the Devil
