Winning The Battle

January 9th, 2026

James 4:1-10.

The book of James is the closest the New Testament comes to the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament. Our passage for today reads a lot like Proverbs. We are warned that we sometimes don’t receive when we ask because we ask with wrong motives (v. 3). We are reminded that if we are friends of the world, we become enemies of God (v. 4). We are promised that He gives us more grace (v. 6).

Verses 7-10 give us both commands and promises. We are commanded to submit ourselves to God and resist the devil, with the promise that if we resist the devil, he will flee from us (v. 7). We are to come near to God and when we do, He will come near to us (v. 8). We must wash our hands, purify our hearts, grieve, mourn, wail, and change our laughter to mourning and our joy to gloom (vv. 8-9). When we humble ourselves before the Lord, He will lift us up (v. 10).

This pattern of command and promise shows how we can win our spiritual battles. God gives us the grace so that we can resist the devil, and when we resist, he flees.

Author: Joe Foltz