James 4:4-10 – “Slippery”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁴Adulteresses! Do you not know the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world has become an enemy of God. ⁵Or do you suppose that the Scripture says emptily the spirit dwelling in us lusts toward envy? ⁶But He gives more grace, therefore it says, “God opposes proud ones but gives grace to humble ones.” ⁷Therefore, submit yourselves to God and resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse [your] hands, sinners, and purify [your] hearts, double-minded. ⁹Be miserable and be sad and cry tears. Let the laughter of yours be turned into sadness and the joy into dejection. ¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up.

If it is true that friendship with the world is enmity with God, if it is really true that our hearts are incorrigibly rotten, if it is true that God marshals His forces against the proud, and if it is true He gives His grace to the humble, then what would be the logical thing to do?

Submit yourselves to God!

Resist the devil, so he goes away.

Draw near to God, so He will draw near to us!

That would all seem logical, no? So what’s the problem? How do I actually apply all of this to my heart and life?

I am amazed as I ponder these questions how elusive is the answer. When I read, “Submit yourself to God,” it should be immediately obvious in my mind what I need to do. But I feel like I’m trying to squeeze a bar of soap.

Oh, you can throw Christian clichés at it, but that isn’t what I’m talking about. What does it mean to submit to God – really?

First of all – why is this so hard? I suspect we haven’t left this issue of pride. Remember it was born in a cloaking device. “Hard to see the dark side is.” Even the passage itself comes down to resisting the devil – but he is the master deceiver, a liar and the father of lies, blinding minds and masquerading as an angel of light. I fear this passage simply gets too close to the jugular. Satan and the sin of pride will let you see sins of immorality, of unkindness, of various intemperances, as long as they as pride can remain hidden in our hearts. Pride carries on its kingdom “covertly in the darkness” and utterly resists being exposed. Manton said, “Christians are not so much in danger of intemperance and sensual lust as pride; it groweth by the decrease of other sins.” In other words, even as I overcome more obvious sins, pride can actually be growing in my heart. I don’t look at pornography (which is good) and way down deep underneath it all, I congratulate myself that I’m actually better than all those guys who do (which is very bad).

In practice, we may be admirably “religious” yet in our hearts we’re saying, “I thank thee, Lord, I am not as other men, like this sinner.” That’s what Manton is referring to and it illustrates my point. If I’m sincere and prayerful, there is a sense in which it is “easy” to see some of my more obvious faults so I can repent of them and change. Perhaps I even advance admirably as a Christian in putting off various sinful habits. But when we go for the jugular, when we go for the root, when we actually want to weed out this insidious sin of pride and its dark lord, I’m not surprised I have this feeling all I’m catching is fleeting glances.

“Hard to see the dark side is.”

Even in submitting to God, I have to be begging Him to open my eyes. “Listen to my cry, O Lord, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me.” They are too strong for me.

It’s no coincidence that when Jesus was here, He gave sight to the blind. There was a much bigger issue at hand. As He told the Laodiceans, “I counsel you to buy from Me … salve to put on your eyes so you can see.”

Lord, my name is Bartimaeus.

I believe this is the first step to submitting to God – realizing this is real spiritual warfare and my enemy is an elusive deceiver. I can’t do this. “I need You, to soften my heart and break me apart; I need You to open my eyes …”

Lord, don’t let me study this passage and walk away with superficial changes. Help me to be genuinely submitted to You. Hard to see the dark side is, but with God, nothing shall be impossible. Satan and my pride are powerful enemies but they are puffs of air compared to the Lamb who was slain. I can’t seem to get a grip on this slippery bar of soap long enough to even give it a serious look. But You can.