Description
What does it mean to be “friends with the world” or “an enemy of God”? We ponder this in today’s meditation on James 4:4. James … (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
In James chapter 4 verse 4, the Apostle James pulls no punches: You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
We have to be clear here, don’t we, that James isn’t saying that we can’t befriend people, he is drawing a clear distinction between the works of light, the works of dark, the kingdom of heaven versus the world. And we live in the kingdom of heaven now because the kingship of Jesus has already started.
So, yes, we are in the world and not of it. And being in the world, we cannot align ourselves to the ways of the world. We cannot align ourselves with gossip and slander. We can’t align ourselves with lying and cheating and stealing and backstabbing. We can’t align ourselves with the mindset of ‘every person for themselves,’ because to do those things, we are directly opposing God. And I don’t think God is someone I’d want to have as my enemy.
So let us be faithful, faithful to our mission, faithful to our calling, faithful to our Saviour, remembering that we can befriend people in the world, but not the ways of the world.
Lord God, we don’t want to be your enemy ever, and we thank you that you call us friends. Help us to remain so, choosing to go your way, rather than ours, and rather than the ways that are demonstrated and paraded to us. Day by day. Amen.
