Fully Submitted to God
James 4:7
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
This is a military term. We submit to Him so that He can arrange our lives in the way He sees fit. Not us. Him. To submit is to leave behind any kind of authority we used to have over our own lives and we give it completely to Him. Now, obviously, we live in a fallen world. Can anyone truly be fully submitted to God?
Let’s dive into James 4 and see what the opposite of submission looks like:
James 4:1-12
“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor. Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?”
Who Are These Unsubmissive People?
They fight and quarrel: this could be like a fist fight
They always want something: but they never get it
They are too proud to pray or pray with wrong motives.
They don’t listen. These people are quick to talk and slander one another.
Adulterers. They are friends with the world. This also includes indecisiveness or double-mindedness. They have one foot in the world and one in the Kingdom of God.
But neutrality is the devil's playground. Trying to be tolerant of other people’s beliefs by being friends with the world only leads to destruction.
Friendship with the World
People who are friends with the world commit spiritual adultery. If there are areas of compromise, you are not fully submitted to God.
Submit by Resisting
James 4:7 - Submit to God.
You can try to rebuke all you want, but if you’re not submitted to God first, he will not flee. There is an order to how this works! Submit and then resist! Sin gives Satan permission to work in our lives. You do not have the authority to rebuke him because you have not submitted to God first!
Romans 6:12
“Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.”
Don’t allow sin to control you! You have authority over it and you must reign over it. (God said this to Cain m, too. Sin is crouching at your door but you must reign over it. God wouldn’t have said it if it wasn’t possible!)
Genesis 4:7
“You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.””
God can’t use someone that is not fully submitted.
A believer is dead to sin.
Romans 6:1-3
“Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death?”
A dead person is no longer able to gossip. Or prone to fits of jealousy. Or lust. This doesn’t mean it’s easy, but through Jesus it is possible.
Romans 6:4
“For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.”
Sin has been buried and we are alive in Christ! We are no longer slaves to sin but bond servants of the Lord.
As a slave, people have to do whatever their master tells them. If you are a slave to sin, you must obey its evil desires. But a dead man can’t do what their old master told them. A dead man is free from its old master.
We submit by lamenting, mourning and weeping
Lament, mourn and weep. When it comes to sin, this is how we should react.
James 4:9
“Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.”
Is Paul saying that joy is bad? No! He is addressing people who are continuing in friendship with the world. He’s condemning laughter and merriment that comes from sinful, worldly pleasures, not from the things of God!
We submit my moving
Moving away from sin and toward Jesus. Moving is painful. It takes work. It’s obnoxious. But when we move toward Jesus, he rewards us far better than the world could ever offer.
James 4:8
“Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.”
How can we love closer to God.
Wash your hands… Isaiah 1:18
Be single-minded… James 4:8
James 1:6
“If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.”
If we want to be fully submitted to God, we must first lay down friendship with the world. You cannot have your feet in two places at once. You will either love the world and be an enemy to God. Or you will be a friend of Jesus and the world will reject you. There is no middle ground.
