⁷Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

At the core of our lives here on earth as created beings, we must choose our master. We are not as autonomous and independent as we would like to think. We will serve someone or something. James has already alluded to this numerous times in his letter. We must not submit to temptations that entice lust, for it will give birth to sin, and that leads to death (James 1:13–15). God is not a master who orchestrates that; He is the one who gives good gifts (1:17). Why choose death over God? We don’t make a good master of ourselves, for we can’t even control our tongues (1:26, 3:8), we submit to favoritism (2:1–7), and we fail in submitting to God’s law even in the smallest commands (2:20).

The choice of submission is binary: we submit to God or we do not. Submitting to any other master falls into the latter category of not submitting to God, which is essentially submitting to the devil. This was the choice Adam and Eve faced in Eden. This is the choice we all face every day of our lives.

This concise, definitive, and complete statement stands alone and needs no qualifiers: “Submit therefore to God.” It is central, primal, and of first importance before all else. How does this command stand next to what Jesus said was the greatest commandment, to love God with all our hearts, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30)? Jesus answers this for us when He said:

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” (John 14:23–24)

Obeying Jesus is the same as loving God. Therefore, obedience to God is our supreme expression of loving Him. Submission moves the idea from a singular act of compliance to a command, to a way of life, an attitude that permeates everything we think and do. James connects submission to God with love when he connects faith to how we treat those in need (James 2:14–17). So, because we love God, who is the giver of all good gifts, we submit to Him and live out our lives, reflecting His love toward others. That is the real faith about which James writes. The faith’s genuineness is proven by how we submit to God in our treatment of others. That is the “works” that prove our faith.

The opposite of this is submitting to the devil, who is the epitome of selfishness, arrogance, and pride. Resisting the devil is a corollary of submitting to God. We cannot do the latter with our prior commitment to the former. We can only resist the devil if we actively live in submission to God.

Lord, I renew my submission to You above all other masters.