Wouldn't you like to have the formula for getting along with everyone? Or how about the formula for making lots of money? How about a formula to persuade people to do what you want? Maybe you want the formula to have peace in your family, or the formula for loosing weight, or the formula to get the job you have always wanted. As simple people, we would like to have a formula for everything.
James gives us a formula that is far more important than any other we could wish for. He gives us the formula for overcoming Satan. "Submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7).
The order of actions is top priority. Submit to God comes first. We are far too weak to fight Satan on our own. We need the power of our Creator to defeat the enemy of our soul. Submitting to God means yielding to all his ways, commands and principles.
This is quickly followed by resisting the devil. The word resist denotes action on our part, things like running in the opposite direction from the temptation. Peter puts it this way, "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart" (2 Peter 2:22).
Then Satan will flee (run away as fast as he can) from you.
