But he gives more grace. Wherefore he says, God sets himself against [the] proud, but gives grace to [the] lowly.
James chapter four opens bluntly: quarrels, envy, and friendship with the world among people who belong to God. Then comes the turn. God does not walk away from such people; He gives more. This verse tells us who receives that supply, and who finds God standing against them.
One commentator reads the "but" as a contrast between how we act and how God acts:
As it seems to me, this connects with what follows: "But He gives more grace." That is, so far from lusting to envy, God is acting in goodness. Grace alone has given the nature of God. Grace alone strengthens the new nature by the gift of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. And more than this: "He gives more grace."
This giving is also the means of overcoming that envy:
On the contrary — and here we find the means of overcoming it — "God gives more grace, He resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble." This is the true secret of strength and victory. It is also the secret of peace of heart among the difficulties and troubles of the world.
One writer renders the word "more" as "greater grace," and ties the size of the supply to the size of the strain:
No doubt the difficulties and the dangers are great for the saint here below. "But He gives more grace"; and all need it… Here it is suited to the trial, and therefore appropriate to need. "But He gives greater grace." The harder the strain, the greater His outflow of goodness to help at the right time.
Every new case draws on a supply with no limit:
He alone can give the needed wisdom and grace in each case as it arises. And He will, blessed be His name, give abundantly to all who simply wait on Him. "He gives more grace." Precious word! There is absolutely no limit to it. It shines as a motto that never runs dry on our Father's treasury door. It assures us of the fullest supply "for the urgent need of every hour."
James backs his statement with a quotation from Proverbs, and the pride in view is a definite disposition, not a vague fault:
Pride. There are several words so translated in the Greek New Testament. The one used here (hyperephania) carries the sense of a spirit of self-exaltation in a man together with the belittling of others… This arrogance shows itself in boastful words and self-glorifying deeds, but its origin is within the heart… This particular form of haughtiness is offensive to God and open to His immediate judgment, for both James and Peter write that "God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).
Grace is refused to pride because pride refuses to admit any need:
In contrast to such envy and strife, the Spirit of God gives "more grace" to overcome it. But if we do not find this grace, it is because of the pride of our own hearts, as the quotation from Proverbs 3:34 indicates. Pride, of course, involves confidence in self, and God cannot encourage this. But the humble person recognises his pressing need of the grace of God, and God gladly answers it.
Where the ESV has "opposes," older translations read "resists." Notice who stands against the proud man:
The humble man may have Satan at his right hand to oppose him; but be sure the proud man will find God Himself there to resist him. We must either lay self aside or God will lay us aside… A proud student and a humble master will never agree. Christ is humble and lowly. So He resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Pride ends in a fall, and that fall shows up soonest in God's own children:
The wise king of long ago had noted that "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov. 16:18). But he does not tell us why it is so. Here we get the explanation. The proud get no grace from God but rather resistance. No wonder they go down. The fall is most obvious in proud believers, since God deals with His children promptly in the way of government.
Humility here is not a mood to work up, but the honest verdict of a person who sees clearly:
Humility suits man. It suits his smallness before God, as he feels the greatness of His grace, and all that man is in himself. The great glory the believer waits for also makes him humble, when he considers his unworthiness. He knows that he can understand nothing and do nothing in divine things without God.
- Contrast. Where we crave and envy, God gives — the verse sets His action against ours.
- Measure. The grace given is "greater grace," fitted to the trial. The harder the strain, the larger the supply — and there is no limit.
- Barrier. Pride is confidence in self, and it can receive nothing, because it admits no need.
- Consequence. The proud meet resistance from God Himself, and among believers the fall comes quickly under His government.
- Channel. The humble admit their need — and God answers that with grace.
Subject yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
The command to submit and the command to resist stand side by side. The order matters: one turns us toward God, the other turns us against His enemy. Commentators ask two questions. What makes submission possible? And why should the devil flee from people as weak as we are?
The word "therefore" ties this call back to grace. Writers note that the sense of His goodness, not sheer effort, is what loosens our grip on our own will.
Grace alone will lead to submission. When we sense the grace and goodness of God, we trust Him. Then the soul gladly gives up its own will and submits to Him. The Christian stops trying to be somebody in the world. Instead he accepts whatever circumstances God arranges.
Submission is described not as bare duty but as the natural result of trusting who God is:
Confidence in God leads the soul to submit itself to Him. It is both a duty and a necessity, but we do it gladly where we trust Him. It is the truth of our relationship with God, and the soul is happy. We do not need a will of our own. God loves us and has a will for us in everything, so we should commit ourselves to Him.
Submission is not one option beside resistance; it is what makes resistance possible. Reverse the sequence and the whole chain reverses with it.
If we are humble, we will find it easy to submit to God. And as we submit to God, we can resist the devil. All too often things work the other way round with us. We start by submitting to the devil. That breeds in us the pride that marks him, so we end up resisting God. Then God resists us, and a fall is certain, with the shame that follows it.
Writers point to pride as the exact place where we must meet the devil:
But we will not be humble unless we take the first step and submit to God. Our own will must be bowed before it will obey… Pride is the devil's chief weapon, and envy and strife come out of it. We must therefore resist his flattering of our own pride.
Resisting is not a contest of strength. When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus stayed in obedience and answered with the word of God.
The armour should be put on before the battle, not just at the battle. When Satan came to Him with his tricks, the Lord had only to rest in obedience. There was no arguing and no confusion. Those are tricks. But when Satan comes out in the open, then resist him. "Be gone, Satan!" — and then he flees. We do not have to defeat one who is already defeated. We have to defeat his tricks by holding the word in obedience.
Writers add that our temptations follow the same lines, and the same answer exposes them:
As he did with our Lord, the devil may tempt us through natural needs, through religious advancement, or through possessions. But if we meet his temptations with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, we will see his tricks for what they are. He cannot stand against the grace of the Spirit who lives in us.
The promise is not that you will win the fight but that he will leave. Writers point to who he meets when he comes.
Once we see Satan for what he is, the new man resists him, and he has no strength. Jesus has overcome him for us. We learn here that if we resist him, he will flee. He finds that he has met the Spirit of Christ in us, and away he goes. The trouble is that we do not always resist him. We give in to what he offers, because the will of God is not everything to us. In many things we still like to please ourselves.
One writer takes this to the practical question of when to make a deal and when not to:
But there is an enemy always at work, and we are called to make no deal with him and no compromise, however convincing he looks… He may preach righteousness. He may stir up zeal. But he never truly lifts up the name of Christ… Let us never forget that to faith he is a beaten enemy.
His retreat is not the end of the story. It clears the ground for something better.
Resist the devil and he has to flee. That leaves the soul free to draw near to God, and to find that He is very near to us.
- Grace starts it. The sense of God's grace and goodness is what makes a person willing to hand over his own will.
- Submission arms it. You cannot resist the devil until your will is given over to God. Do it the other way round and you end in a fall.
- The word does it. Resistance is not argument or strength. It is obedience holding on to the word, as Jesus did in the wilderness.
- Christ finishes it. The devil flees because he meets an enemy who has already beaten him — not our power, but Christ's.
- Nearness crowns it. With the enemy gone, the soul is free to draw near to God and find Him near.