Read James 4:4
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. (James 4:4)
The word “world” is used in Scripture in three different ways. It may refer to people, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). It may also have a geographical meaning, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” (Mark 16:15). The footnote of the NIV Study Bible describes the “world” as mentioned in James 4:4 – “not the world of people or the created world, but the world or realm of sin which is controlled by Satan and organized against God and righteousness.”
God is Sovereign and yet we read in 1 John 5:19 “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” The devil has been defeated by Jesus on the cross but God is still giving him permission to control the world until the time when he is “thrown into the lake of burning sulphur where he will be tormented day and night for ever and ever” – see Revelation 20:7-10.
Some of the hallmarks of the world, for which people crave, are power, position, popularity, possessions, pleasure. We may long for some or all of these things because of our pride. In one sense there is nothing wrong with these hallmarks, but when they are used in a selfish way, which is so often the case, they become the tools of the devil. Naturally we are all inclined to love popularity and possessions. But a person who is bent on popularity would never be willing to be persecuted for Christ’s sake. Similarly a person who is deeply in love with possessions is not likely to heed God’s call to fulltime Christian ministry.
“Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
What a Friend we have in Jesus.
What sort of a friend does He have in us?
This meditation is extracted from “Transformation from Belief to Behaviour: 39 Lenten Meditations on the Letter of James” by Peter Young and used with permission by the author. It may be used solely for personal, noncommercial, and informational purposes. Republication or redistribution of this devotional is prohibited.
