James 4:7

Submit yourselves therefore to God The forms of the Greek verbs express a somewhat sharper antithesis than the English. God setteth himself against the proud, therefore, set yourselves as under God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you The rule seems to point to the true field for the exercise of the combative element which enters into man's nature. Not in strife and bitterness against each other, not in setting themselves against the will of God, but in taking their stand against the Enemy of God and man were the disciples of Christ to shew that they were indeed men. We may, perhaps, trace in the form of the precept an indirect reference to the history of the Temptation in Matthew 4:1-11.