Resistance.

The word “resistance” in the bible is so much more forceful than it is in English. This is interesting when Jesus uses it the gospels (“do not ‘resist’ an evil person…” Matt 5:38; is Jesus warning Israel not to resist Rome?), but it is particularly interesting in the context of our responsibility to resist sin. The fact is, the verb “to resist” (antistenai, antistenai) is almost a technical term for resistance of a military sort (N.T. Wright). When Josephus uses it (just 30 years after the life of Christ) he means “violent struggle” 15 out of 17 times (Wars of the Jews). So, at the very least the word implies a violent struggle rather than passive resistance. Consider James 4.7-10:

Submit yourselves then, to God.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded

I could write another entire article on the beautiful, essential Jewishness of this short passage, about the way James references the Psalms, Wisdom literature and the prophets all in the space of these few lines. These three verses are positively pregnant with meaning. The verb “resist” in vs. 7 is a conjugate of antistenai; James envisions the people he’s writing to as being engaged in a violent struggle with sin, which is actually comforting considering the mild chewing out he’s just given them in the first three chapters.

This is not supposed to be easy. Struggling with sin, violently resisting it, is not an indication that anything is wrong. On the contrary, the opposite is true: if you’re not struggling, it’s not because you’re better than those who are; it’s likely that you’ve given up.

In the Old Testament, Jacob wrestles with an angel, refusing to let go until the angel gives him a new name, which is another way of asking for a brand new start. Jacob needed that. We usually miss half the point of the story. Jacob walks away with a new name…and a limp. John Wimber, one of the founding Pastors of the Vineyard Family of Churches was thinking of this when he said, “Never trust a leader without a limp.”