James 4: 7,8

In James 4: 7,8 the believer finds a beautiful prescription for victory. First, it promptly enjoins us to “Submit ourselves therefore to God . . .” Sometimes, we attempt to put the cart before the horse. We try to resist the devil without first submitting, surrendering, yielding ourselves to God. When we are filled with pride and carnality it is very difficult for us to submit ourselves, even to God. The enemy often tempts us to think that we are self-sufficient in and of ourselves, deceiving us into thinking like the Laodicean church that we “have need of nothing” (Rev. 3:17).

However, may it be our perpetual realization that “our sufficiency is of God” (2 Cor. 3:5). He, our Creator/God is the only being who is self-existent and self-sufficient. We need Him! We cannot live or survive independent of Him. The Apostle found it prudent to caution us to live our lives completely submissive to Him and to His will. Being therefore, so mandated we eagerly submit to His divine will and plan for our lives. May the Almighty always have the undivided attention and respect of the redeemed. Even when it is difficult we must make the solid commitment to submit to Him always.

Here in this passage, we find short command sentences, that seem easy enough, but not so easy to turn into action. Next, we are given the injunction to “Resist the devil . . .” (7). There are some who are naive enough to believe that there is no such entity as the devil, the evil one. Yet he is alluded to on numerous occasions in the infallible, authoritative Word of God. He is called in Holy Scriptures “Satan.” This word, devil, signifies “adversary.” He is known as the deceiver. He is called the dragon, the old serpent, the roaring lion. This is how he is described by John the Revelator “And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years” (Rev. 20:2). He is presented as the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10).

Throughout the Word we are warned of his devices. He opposes all that is godly and righteous. He is diabolically evil to no end. He is vicious and vile. His mission is to steal kill and destroy. We are unequivocally called upon to resist him – to violently, aggressively oppose him, to withstand him, to make every effort to stand in opposition to his evil schemes and advances. There are those who make the mistake of resisting God and submitting to the devil. Our job is simply to keep on resisting the devil! This we can positively, absolutely do by – submitting ourselves first to God.

It must be again revisited that when Jesus was born, Satan attempted to destroy Him (Matt. 2:16). He was also very instrumental in orchestrating Jesus’ death on Calvary, not knowing it would be his ultimate, supreme defeat. The Scriptures inform “Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8). Jesus was indeed the victor. In His death, he annulled death and him who had the power over death, that is the devil. We have the assurance that the devil did not and cannot win but in fact has been defeated once and for all and over and over again. We joyfully submit to God and fearlessly resist the devil and all his evil forces and machinations! We submit and resist!