Scripture
James 4:7 (NIV)
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Observation
The epistle of James is one of my favorite books in the New Testament. Yesterday I wrote about studying the Bible in context. However, unlike the epistles of Paul, which often do require a bit more understanding of context, I find that James speaks directly to my heart as a Believer today without having to delve into as much context. Paul was often addressing issues specific to the people of the different churches and was aware of the desires of Jewish leaders to try and teach new, Gentile believers, ideology contrary to the Gospel message. Furthermore, he knew the other temptations that faced new Believers. Although we don’t have statues of idols and other false gods so much in evidence today, as pathways of religion, our false gods and idols are even more dangerous because they are not so obvious to us.
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