Humble Submission

“Submit yourselves therefore 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. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

(James 4:7-10 ESV)

Most of us think that we understand the difference between pride and humility. Pride, we believe, is thinking too much of ourselves. And humility, in contrast, is thinking too little of ourselves. While there is some truth to this understanding, what we fail to grasp is the connection of pride to unrepentance, and humility to repentance.



This is brought out to us in the above passage. James had been addressing the connection that the believers possessed with the world. He’d told them that, by befriending the world, they became enemies of God. It was an act of adultery, an act of unfaithfulness, to the God who’d made them his own.



As we see above, he goes on to call the people to repentance. If things were to change, if they were to be rescued from this state of enmity with God, they had to turn from their sin and to the Lord. And this repentance would take the form of submission and humility.



Neither of these words are considered desirable by mankind today. Submission, after all, implies that we are not free to make our own decisions. It implies that we’re not in charge of our own life. And humility implies an attitude of weakness and lowliness.



We don’t aspire to either of these qualities. In fact, we tend to look down upon those who possess them. And we, instead, encourage the opposite. We encourage people to think highly of themselves and to take charge of their own life.



Repentance, however, takes the form of submission and humility because we are brought to the realization of our true standing. We are brought to an understanding of our position in the universe. And this removes any sense of pride or self-worth we may feel.



We are brought to the realization of our sinfulness. We are brought to the realization that we are not good people. We are brought to the realization that we are undeserving of God’s love and blessing. We are brought to the understanding that the only thing we deserve is his wrath.



We are also brought to the realization that God is our Lord. We are brought to the realization that Jesus is our Lord. And we, in turn, are his people. We are the people that he both created and redeemed.



While this may lower our view of ourselves, it’s a blessed thing. It’s a blessed thing because of the great assurance we receive from the Lord. As James points out to us, when we resist the devil, he will flee from us. When we draw near to God, he will draw near to us. And when we humble ourselves, God himself will exalt us.