1What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:1-4 NASB
If we read something like this – that friendship with the world is hostility toward God – we must immediately ask ourselves what do we mean by ‘friendship’?
Does this mean that we cannot have friends who are unbelievers? Most of us have neighbours and acquaintances that we would categorize as ‘friends’ even though by a spiritual definition they are ‘of the world’ in their outlook and their commitments.
We need to look at the context. In context, James is concerned about the attitude of at least some of those who claim to be Christian. Their desire for pleasure is very much like that of their neighbours. In this case, ‘friendship with the world’ refers to the way they have aligned their values to that of the world around them, rather than to the spiritual values they should have as followers of Jesus. In fact, the situation is so bad that he accuses them of spiritual infidelity.
May our commitment to Jesus Christ be pure and unmixed with the desire for worldly pleasure.
– SSXG