War Has Its Solutions

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?

—James 4:7–12

Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, is the solution to all our wars. Whether it is a cosmic conflict or a family fight, He is the only true and eternal solution to war. This world will never find peace without embracing the Prince of Peace. This may sound simplistic to some people, but it’s true. History continues to testify to wars and to spawn ever-increasing rumors of wars. But there is a day coming when Christ will return to usher in a millennium of peace upon this war-weary world. In that day, as Isaiah foretold, our swords will be beaten into plowshares and the lion will lie down peaceably beside the lamb (Isaiah 2:4; 11:6).

James concluded his words on war and conflict with a series of five verbs, all of which are in the imperative tense, signifying that these are not options, but commands. In essence they are five stepping stones that lead to a life of inner peace: “submit . . . resist . . . draw near . . . cleanse . . . humble yourselves.”

The first step is submission. James began, “Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Many of us have read this verse, rushed out to resist the Devil, and failed every time. Why? Because resistance has a prerequisite: “submit to God.” To submit literally means to “line up under.” James was saying that the first step toward peace is to put ourselves under the lordship of Jesus Christ. This is an act of our will that precludes having our own way. It becomes His way, not our way; His will, not our will. It is akin to Christ’s own prayer on the evening before the crucifixion: “Not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).

The next step is opposition. James challenged us to oppose evil, to “resist the devil.” The moment we submit to Christ, we have a new enemy in Satan, but we can resist him. This Greek word means “to stand against,” and this is a military phrase meaning to “take your stand against someone or something.”

James was revealing to us the defensive aspect of our fight against the enemy: we are to resist. Paul spoke of this from prison in Rome when he wrote, “Take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness” (Ephesians 6:13–14).

Many of us are fooled by the demonic deceiver, but this enemy is not the problem. We are. Consider this promise: when you submit to God, clothe yourself in His armor, and resist the Devil, “he will flee from you.” Do we really believe that? We definitely would if we remembered he is already a defeated foe. The apostle John attested to this when he said, “You are of God, little children, and . . . He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). While Satan may be a “roaring lion,” that is all he can do. He can only roar; he has no teeth. Satan’s doom is sealed. Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). Since Jesus has been given “all” authority, Satan has none. N-O-N-E! The only authority Satan has over you is what you yield to him when you refuse to submit to God.

Again, the first two steps toward inner peace are to “submit to God” and “resist the devil.” Next comes an interesting proposition: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” There is only one way we can approach God, much less come near to Him, and that is through the blood of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This is why Paul said, “In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).

James was writing to believers, so he was not necessarily referring to salvation. Instead he was addressing the need of those Christians living in sin to repent. He was addressing those who are torn between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of the Word. Most of us remember the story of the prodigal son. Longfellow referred to it as the greatest short story ever told. The wayward lad “drew near” to his faithful and forgiving father, and then the father drew near to him.

The fourth step involves an admonition. We must admit our need for forgiveness and ask God for it: “Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep!” True sorrow for our sin is essential for repentance.

Cleansing our hands has to do with repenting and turning away from our unhealthy and unwise external actions. Purifying our hearts has to do with repenting of our ungodly internal attitudes. The actions of our hands are always a result of the attitudes of our hearts.

Clean hands and a pure heart are key to drawing near to God. That is why the psalmist asked, “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? . . . He who has clean hands and a pure heart” (Psalm 24:3–4). That hill is Mount Calvary. Who can ascend there? I can’t. Only one person ever lived who could ascend this hill of sacrifice and substitution. That person was Jesus, the only One who lived a spotless life. But on that hill, His consistently clean hands became dirty when He took on my sin and yours, and His always-pure heart became impure so that our impure hearts could be made pure.

Finally, there is a disposition. James said, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up.” In the Greek this sentence is in the passive voice, indicating that the subject does not act, but is acted upon. The point is God lifts us up; we can’t lift up ourselves. To humble ourselves before God is to recognize our bankrupt spiritual condition and to admit our need of Him. How much more satisfying to have Christ exalt us before others than to seek to exalt ourselves! Yes, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). God hates the sin of pride (Proverbs 6:16–17) and battles against it. But the good news is this: God is rich in grace toward those who humble themselves before Him.