Principles Taught in God’s Word
James 4:7, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you."
The Principle of Responsibility
The last lesson was on the Principle of Authority; today’s lesson is the
principle of responsibility. Resisting the Devil is each individual’s
responsibility.
Since the beginning of time, we have avoided responsibility as Adam did.
When God asked him if he had eaten of the forbidden fruit, Adam’s first
response was, “the woman,” then he said, “that you gave me.” So, Adam first
blamed the woman, then blamed God for giving her to him; refusal to take
responsibility for his own sin. When the woman was asked what she had
done, she blamed the serpent, again a refusal to take responsibility.
Today we see that mindset everywhere, it’s not my fault, it is someone else’s
fault.
We also see how Aaron tries to shift the responsibility in Exodus 32:22, “And
Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people,
that they are set on mischief.”
Exodus 32:23, “For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us:
for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we
wot not what is become of him.”
Some claim innocence as we read about Pilate in Matthew 27:24, “When Pilate
saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took
water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of
the blood of this just person: see ye to it.”
We all need to learn and practice the principle of responsibility. As the old
song goes, “It’s me, It’s me O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.”