James 4:4-10 – “Weeding”

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.

Verse 7 is interesting in that it contains both the injunction to submit ourselves to God and alongside it to resist the devil.

We have a hero and a villain, our King and His most bitter enemy, the narrow way of the Cross and the highway to hell. In our absurd blindness, we imagine all of this a battle that we must one day consider and decide our allegiance. “I will hear you again at a more opportune time,” said Felix. But there is no third option. There are only two masters. If we would submit ourselves to God, we must resist the devil. If we submit ourselves to the devil, God will resist us. … And what we fail to realize is that not to very deliberately and wholeheartedly submit ourselves to God is to submit ourselves to the devil.

“I don’t see that,” one may say. Of course you don’t. “Hard to see the dark side is.”

All the more reason to very deliberately submit ourselves to God!

The devil -- not only the Lord’s most bitter enemy but ours as well; the master deceiver, the father of lies, and a murderer from the beginning; he who would offer you all the kingdoms of this world and their splendor, when in reality he only intends to brutally murder you; Grima Wormtongue whispering lies in your Theoden’s ear, pretending to be your friend while he absolutely destroys everything that ever mattered to you.

Resist him, says the Lord.

As to what it means to resist him, as always, thousands of writers have commented on this passage and offered their insights. I would like to add a thought that I haven’t found much addressed – that one of the monumental ways in which we must resist him is to vigilantly guard our hearts against the sin of pride.

Of course, we must guard our hearts against all sin, be mindful of our eyes and of our anger, of our love of pleasures and possessions. But as Manton pointed out, “Christians are not so much in danger of intemperance and sensual lust as pride; it groweth by the decrease of other sins.”

As I have pointed out earlier, pride is the devil’s sin. It is the hideous sin that hides itself, the sin which, as Manton  points out, can actually be growing even as we resist more obvious temptations and feel we’re becoming “better.” But God resists the proud. He “marshals His forces” against them. Even as we’re truly becoming “better,” striving to put off our anger, to be more patient and kind, to “do right,” we may actually be falling in the sin of pride.

The Pharisee scrupulously practiced his religion then prayed, “I thank Thee, Lord, I am not as other men … like this sinner.” He may have had many things “right” but he was blind to the sin of pride and it completely ruined him. Little did he know as he went away that “he was not forgiven.” The humble sinner went away with the only thing that mattered and the Pharisee with everything but.

I guess that’s my point. If we would resist the devil, we must resist what I suspect is his most subtle temptation. It worked on Adam and Eve: “Ye shall be as gods …” and down they went.

I would suggest that anytime we’re angry, or even just irritated, we should look for the sin of pride in our hearts. We’ll likely not see it at all, for one thing because we’re so focused on how “wrong” they are, or how “wrong” it is. But those very thoughts are focused on what someone else should change, not me. Instead I need to be asking myself, “Why does that anger me?” “Why does that irritate me?” If we would resist the devil, we must be asking the Lord to help us see really why we’re angry and I would guess it will always be true that there is some sin of pride hidden beneath it all.

Anger is something I still need a lot of work on, but fortunately, the Lord called it to my attention a long time ago. Another one I’m working on right now (and not doing very well) is fear. As I’ve often bemoaned, I’ve been an incorrigible worrier all my life. I’ve tried to tackle as worry but never made much progress. I’ve also tried to tackle it as fear, remembering the Lord says, “Fear not, I am with you,” and I think made some progress; but right now and as I study this section of James, I’m wondering if I’ll not conquer it until I root out the sin of pride that is secretly fueling it.

I don’t think I really see it yet, but how can worry and fear not be ultimately just a symptom of pride? The Lord says He’s in control. He says I don’t need to worry, I don’t need to fear. What am I really saying but that I don’t believe Him? I fear somehow in my heart I think I’m so important that I can’t even trust God to give me what I need and want, that somehow, in the end it will be up to me to fight the battle and win.

That is all very bad. But even saying it, I still don’t think I “see” it. Is this something in which I need to “resist the devil,” to draw near to God, to submit to Him and tell him what I’m thinking and ask Him to help me see the real battle?

Hmmmmm. Eph 6:11,12 tells us, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”

I still don’t “see” it but I’m sure the real problem under my worrying is pride. As always, it’s hiding. I can’t see it. My name is Bartimaeus. “What do you want Me to do for you,” Jesus asks. “Lord, I want to see.”

The only thing I see clearly is that my hope is to “be strong in the Lord.” I hope it’s true that, by drawing near to Him, I am resisting the devil. That is all I know to do now – to pray the Lord would help me see the real problem, the sin of pride, and root it out of my heart, that I could finally and decisively overcome the sin of worrying, not so much by pulling its weeds, but by killing its root.