Freedom in Submission

 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7 (NRSV)

This time of year, as we slowly make our approach towards Christmas Day, we reflect often upon our hopes and longings as the people and followers of Christ. There are likely many things that we hope for, both in our world at large and in our lives. We long for peace in the world, for faithfulness and courage in our leaders, both civil and sacred, as well as an end to the pandemic that continues to plague our communities it seems more and more daily with no end in sight. Yet in spite of this we also hope for healed relationships, renewed spiritual fervor, and freedom from the sin and evil that so often overtakes our desires and actions.

Hope, therefore, assumes a significant degree of struggle. We must contend for the hope we have in Christ, actively pursuing His Kingdom over and against the other kingdoms that seek to take us captive and steal our joy which is only fulfilled and found in Christ. As James says in his epistle, there are “cravings at war within us” (James 4:1). We long and hope for the rule and reign of Christ to be manifest in the world, yet our hearts are still influenced by sin, and so we continue to crave comfort, power, affluence, and pleasure.

According to James, freedom is found in submission. Yet in the same breath, he ties the idea of submission to the active work of resistance. Submit to God by resisting the devil. We must expand our hearts and imaginations to include a far more robust and engaged understanding of submission, which is a good and powerful thing in the life of the believer.

When I think of submission, by default I picture a wrestling match in which the defeated athlete ceases to resist, no longer putting up a fight in order to be free from the dominance of their victorious opponent. This is not the type of submission James has in mind though. Submission as a Kingdom Ambassador always involves active and intentional resistance. We submit ourselves to the way of God by rooting out every evil desire and intention that has found its way deep within our hearts.

Submit to God today by actively resisting evil and instead pursue a life of humble intimacy with our Lord and Savior.