Glory to God! It’s the month of December and we are in the middle of the Christmas festivities as we have briefly discussed in our last Scripturesource meditation post. Most Christians observe the seasons of Christmas and Easter every year to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ on earth (Christmas) and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (Easter). Thus, the Christmas season marks the beginning of Jesus earthly life and ministry and Easter season marks the end of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry. During the birth of Jesus, there appeared with the angel a great multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests (Luke 2:13-14), but during the crucifixion and death of Christ, in addition to the angels ministering to Jesus Christ in the similar way they ministered to Him in the wilderness (Matthew 4:11b; Mark 1:13; Hebrews 1:14; Psalm 34:7; 91:11-12), nature itself reacted while Jesus was bearing the atrocious pain as He was passing through the valley of death – darkness came over the whole land from noon until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life (Matthew 27:51-52; Luke 23:44-45a). Remember, (i) Jesus came down to earth and lived among us to save sinful humanity from sin and death, and (ii) He died and resurrected from the dead to redeem our lives and take us with Him to heaven. Apostle Peter wrote: He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24). In order to achieve the goal of His ministry, He surrendered His life to fulfill the will of God, as a result, He was rejected, falsely accused by the crowd as well as the by the authority, betrayed, taken captive, deserted, persecuted (spat upon, beat up, scourged, mocked, ridiculed, nailed to the cross, pierced), and died on the cross. He endured the cross, scorning its shame, for your sake and my sake. Therefore, it is time for you and I to submit ourselves to God (James 4:7a).

In the light of our discussion here, let us focus on the passage we chose for our meditation (James 4:7-10). The key focuses of the passage are: (i) submit ourselves to God (James 4:7a); (ii) humble ourselves before God (James 4:10a); and (iii) resist the devil at all times (James 4:7b). This is because no one can serve two masters at the same time, as Jesus stated: No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13; [John 8:44]). If we submit ourselves to God and obey His commands by humbling ourselves before Him and resist the devil and do not take in his falsely fabricated offers, then the rest of everything for our righteous living will fall in the right positions, especially in our relationship with God as well as with everyone else.

As devout followers of Jesus Christ, we ought to focus on two important things during our earthly pilgrimage; firstly, we need to fix our eyes on Jesus as we lead a faith-based life and, secondly, our faith-life needs to be thoroughly rooted in the Word of God. Without taking care of these two factors, it would be hard to live a life that is worthy of our calling. It is so, because sometimes trials and troubles will certainly come our way and disrupt our spiritual life, like the disciples who were caught up in a furious storm on the lake that the waves broke over the boat and it was nearly swamped (Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4:35-41). Due to such unfavorable situations, we might act wrongly and miss the divinely assigned purpose of our life. Jesus, being the Son of God, also faced challenges and oppositions from almost every side during His earthly life and ministry. In all such situations, He fixed His eyes on God the Father and lived a life that is based on His Father’s commands (which is the Word of God), which means, He trusted His Father in heaven in all situations and submitted Himself to Him. This is why Jesus repeatedly stated that He did not come to do His own will but to do the will of Him who sent Him (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; 8:29; 17:4). Therefore, Jesus was able to resist the devil every time the devil confronted Him (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13; also refer to: Matthew 16:23; Mark 8:33). The apostles did the same thing when they faced oppositions and persecutions from the enemies of the gospel. All the apostles went through a lot of torture and suffering for their faith in Jesus Christ, and all of them became martyrs for the sake of the gospel except Apostle John who had a natural death in his old age. Apostle Paul did the same thing when he faced trials and troubles in his ministry. Before his encounter with Jesus Christ on his way to Damascus to arrest the followers of Christ (Acts 7:57-58; 8:1-3; 9:1-31), he opposed and persecuted the followers of Jesus Christ but after his encounter with Jesus he became one of Jesus’ followers and himself went through severe persecutions for his faith in Jesus Christ. While he was writing to the believers in Corinth, he mentioned some of the sufferings he went through while defending Jesus as the Messiah and preaching the Good News of salvation through Christ: We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body (2 Corinthians 4:8-10). In addition, he also specifically mentioned some of the trials and troubles he faced while he was carrying out the ministry he was called to do. He stated that:

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches … In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands (2 Corinthians 24-33)

It is not only the apostles and disciples who faced persecution for the sake of their faith in Jesus Christ but the believers starting from the time of Jesus (that is, from the early first century) also faced severe persecutions in their lives for their faith in Jesus Christ and countless believers were put to death because of their faith in Jesus Christ. All the above mentioned followers of Jesus Christ unwaveringly placed their trust in the Lord, humbled themselves before the Lord and submitted themselves to God even though they faced severe persecution in their lives.

The very first thing we need to do in our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is to submit ourselves to God (James 4:7a), which urges us to do nothing but surrender our life and everything we have (our body, soul, spirit, our power and potentiality to do things, the wealth and other resources we own, our needs, our wants, our desires, and everything related to us) before God and submit to His authority in everything we say and/or do. The Lord God wants us to obey His commands and allow ourselves to be submitted to the authority of God. Many a time, in one way or another, almost all of us want to do things not in God’s way but in our own way due to our selfish ambitions. However, God wants us to do things in our lives in God’s way, so that we and our family will be blessed and our life will be a blessing to rest of everyone who is near and far. Jesus’ life on earth is the best example ever for such an obedient life who willingly and wholeheartedly surrendered and submitted His life to the will of His Father in heaven. Throughout Jesus’ earthly life, He submitted to the will of God and obeyed everything the Father commanded Him. Jesus repeatedly stated that He came to do the will of Him who sent Him (John 6:38) and He submitted Himself to carry out God’s will in and through His life and He did it perfectly. For instance, in the Garden of Gethsemane, while Jesus was praying and pleading to His Father in heaven for His life, He prayed in this way: My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will (Matthew 26:39). Later, while He was on the cross about the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46; also refer to Psalm 22:1; 42:9; 88:14; Isaiah 53:3-4; Mark 15:34]). The author of Hebrews stated about Christ’s submission to His Father in heaven: During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission (Hebrews 5:7). Similarly, the first thing we need to do in our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is to submit ourselves to our Father in heaven. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen us to submit ourselves to carry out the will of God in our lives.

The second thing we need to do in our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is to humble ourselves before God the Father (James 4:10a). This means, we need to honor and respect and be submissive to the Lord God who created us (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7). We are not the lord of our lives but the Lord God who created us in His own likeness and image is the Lord of our lives (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7; Deuteronomy 10:14; Psalm 24:1; 100:3; Romans 14:8; 1 Corinthians 6:19). Therefore, we need to humble and submit ourselves before God – not boasting about our own abilities but having a complete trust and dependence upon God. The pride in us may force us to promote/elevate ourselves before God and others but if we humble ourselves before God and others it can calm down the pride in us and boost our trust in the Lord God. Apostle Peter wrote to his readers: Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you (1 Peter 5:6). Humbling oneself before God describes the fact that you and I are the created beings and we have our own limitations. Our existence itself depends upon God’s favor upon our lives, which again depends upon our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – if our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is right in the sight of God the Father, everything will go well with us; if not, God will judge us according to our deeds (Ecclesiastes 12:14; Romans 2:6; Hebrews 4:13), especially those who oppose Him, for it is written that It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31). Jesus said: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28; also refer to Luke 12:4-5). The Lord God will judge both the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Timothy 4:1; 1 Peter 4:5). Therefore, let us ask the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom and strength to humble ourselves before the Lord God for He is the One who created us in His own likeness and image.

The third important thing to do in our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is to resist the devil at all times (James 4:7b). Apostle Peter wrote: Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). As a devout follower of Jesus Christ, we ought to resist the devil at all times because the devil will use any given opportunity for his own benefit. He is crafty and cunning, as it is mentioned in the book of Genesis: The serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made (Genesis 3:1a). The book of Revelation identifies the devil with the ancient serpent, as it is mentioned: The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him (Revelation 12:9; also refer to 2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 John 3:8; Revelation 20:2). The Scripture states that the devil is a liar and known as the father of lies (John 8:44). The devil came to destroy us by destroying our relationship with Jesus (John 10:10a) but Jesus came to save us from the grip of the devil and give us life (John 10:10b [3:16]). Apostle John stated that Jesus came to destroy the devil’s work: The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work (1 John 3:8). During Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness after His baptism under the hands of John the Baptist, Jesus resisted the devil by quoting the Word of God (Mathew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13; also refer to Mark 1:12-13). Let us ask the Holy Spirit to give us strength to resist the devil at all times, that is, all through our journey from earth to glory.

Many of the first or second generation believers were not fully loyal to the teachings of Jesus Christ which they received through the apostles and other disciples of Jesus Christ. What we can understand from James’ statement of You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God (James 4:4) is that many of them were living a double standard life, which means, they were more worldly than godly; or, in other words, they were worldly while they were godly. James noted down some of the specific reasons for their spiritual complacency/lagging: they were fighting and quarreling among themselves (4:1a), they were cherishing evil desires in their hearts (4:1b); they kill, covet, fight, and quarrel if they don’t get what they longed for (4:2), they pray to God for things but they do not receive it because of their wrong motives and due to that reason they fight among themselves (4:3), they were proud but they did not humble themselves (4:6), they were very quick in talking and judging others and slandering one another (4:11). In fact, they were practicing a lukewarm kind of spirituality. These could be some of the reasons that James sternly warned and urged them to submit themselves to God, draw closer to God, humble themselves before God, and resist the devil at all times. It is time for us to read again the Scripture passage (James 4:7-10) we chose for our SftW meditation and analyze and study it for our spiritual nourishment:

• • Submit yourselves to God (4:7a)
  • Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (4:7b)
  • Come near to God and he will come near to you (4:8a)
  • Wash your hands, you sinners (4:8b)
  • Purify your hearts, you double-minded (4:8c)
  • Grieve, mourn and wail for all the wrong we do against God (4:9a)
  • Change your laughter to mourning because of our sins against God (4:9b)
  • Change your joy to gloom because of the wrong we committed against God (4:9c)
  • Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up (4:10)

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, as James the brother Jesus urged the early Christians, he urges us to humble ourselves before God and draw closer to God. Our spiritual life will be strengthened if we humble ourselves before God and draw closer to Him. We can easily resist the devil when we humble ourselves before God and draw closer to Him. The devil will be forced out from our life if we draw/come closer to God. We ought to fear and honor God for He is our creator and honor everyone around us (believer or nonbeliever) for we are all created in the image and likeness of God. We are to wholeheartedly follow God for He is Sovereign over all and over everything else. Let us pray and ask the Holy Spirit to enable/strengthen us to draw closer to God and submit ourselves to God, to humble ourselves before God, and to resist the devil at all times. May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!