Submit Yourselves to God
Dr. James Smith
James 4:1-12
7 May 2006
Many Christians of today are surprised to find out how open early Christians were to seeing truth in other religious systems.
One of the undisputed giants among early Christians was the famous St. Augustine. As a young man, Augustine began to make his slow journey back to Christ, while reading from a work (Hortensius) by a pagan rhetorician named Cicero.
Cicero encouraged Augustine (and others) to seek out and become a lover of wisdom, wherever it may be found. And certainly, the book of Proverbs offers similar counsel.
Much later, in the twentieth century, C.S. Lewis; practically the patron saint of evangelical Christianity; offered a similar view.
He said in his famous book, Mere Christianity (Book II), that after he had renounced his atheism and became a Christian, he was able to take a more generous view toward other philosophical and religious systems.
He notes that, “If you are a Christian, you do not have to believe that all other religions are entirely wrong. If you are an atheist, you do have to believe that the main point in all religions of the world is simply one huge mistake.”
“If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the strangest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth. And of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong.”
When I was an undergraduate student, one of my majors was comparative religion. I actually took most of my courses in Buddhism, since I was hoping to become a missionary with the C&MA to East Asia.
One of the first things that you learn in Buddhism is that the according to the rather pessimistic views of the Buddha, “all life is suffering” and that our “suffering is caused by our cravings and our desires.”
As I’ve thought about this over the years, I’ve found this to be largely true and in conformity with many things found in the Bible.
Certainly, when we come to chapter 4 of the Book of James, James begins with a very similar idea in the form of a series of questions.
“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your cravings and desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight.”
But then James offers the rest of the ugly truth that the Buddha did not. “You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”
And then he calls those who fall into this trap, “adulterers” . . . people who are spiritually unfaithful to their promises and covenant agreements with God.
Certainly, if you have ever read Augustine’s famous Christian classic entitled, “The Confessions,” this is what his whole life boiled down to before he submitted himself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
In fact, his opening paragraph has been quoted by Christians for centuries. “Oh God, you have made us for Yourself, and we are restless until we find rest in Thee.”
But as long as he (or we) are driven on in life by a multitude of cravings and desires, we will continue fighting and battling with the world, others, ourselves and most importantly, God Himself.
One of the beauties of those who are wise and spiritual, such as James, is their ability to clearly state what should be obvious to all of us, such as the truth that if we get too friendly with this world, we will increasingly distance ourselves from God.
Spending our lives in pursuit of possessions and pleasures is a sure recipe to becoming haggard and restless, because the truth of the matter is that, as the famous musician Bob Dylan once said, “You gotta serve someone.”
And you cannot be a friend of God and a friend of this world and its fallen values simultaneously. One will be your true friend and one will be your mortal enemy. And so James cuts to the quick by calling “a spade, a spade.”
While Buddha rightly saw this basic problem in humanity, his solution was one that is currently popular in the world . . . that is, “self help.”
Buddha believed that if one organized their life correctly, in things such as in right actions and right thought, that this would solve the problem.
While James would agree that we need to live, think and act rightly, this is where the similarity ends.
Instead, in verse 7, James counsels Christians to “submit themselves to God.” Because it is only in this total submission of oneself to the Lord, that one can break this cycle of “double-mindedness” that so many people, including followers of Jesus Christ suffer from.
Christians sometimes call such “double-mindedness” by another name . . . “fence sitting.” Sitting on or straddling a fence allows a person to keep a foot in both places at the same time, and in a culture that insists on having a multitude of choices, this has never been more popular.
But the downside is that it absolutely paralyzes a person from making a concrete choice in life.
And where I’m from, birds that sat on a fence too long, usually missed the deadly fact that I was hiding behind a bush with a rifle in my hands, and that they should have flown away sooner.
“Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash up, purify your hearts, humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up,” James tells us.
Finally, James like so many others in the ancient world, warn us against slander and judgment that so easily contribute to further fighting and quarreling among people.
But where James differs is that such slander and judgment of others seeks to usurp God’s unique role as the Ultimate Judge of all.
I have known of churches who have so clearly recognized the mortal danger of judgment and slander that they actually require their members to sign statements that they will not judge or slander another person in the church, behind their back.
Instead they will approach the person in love and concern in good Matthew 18:15-19 fashion and discuss the issue directly with them.
And this I commend to our church as well. How many church splits could be avoided? How many precious relationships could be saved, if we followed such Biblical wisdom?
When I was first licensed as an Alliance pastor in New York, my district superintendent counseled me to, “keep short orders with people,” meaning, when there is a problem take care of it right away in all Christian love.
I have found that when I have done that, things usually work out and there is great blessing as well.
In the end, “all truth is God’s truth” anyway. After all, how could any truth not be from God and how could any lie not be from Satan.
And the truth of the matter is that James is right. Fights and quarrels come from desires and cravings deep within us. And slander and judgment act like gasoline on an already raging fire.
So, submit yourselves to God then . . . come near to God and He will come near to you.
Let’s Pray
