James: Friend of God or Friend of the World
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Friendship
Friendship
Memories of friends
I remember scraping the driveway of snow in the the bitter cold winters with my friend Dan so we could play basketball.
James - Exegetical Commentary of the New Testament Literary Context
Having just warned against the evils that result from jealousy and rivalry (3:14, 16), James now points out what some in his churches have seemingly allowed those motives to produce—coveting and quarreling—which resemble devotion to this fallen world rather than to God (4:1–6)
I remember he and I hauling scrap wood from wherever we could find it to make tree forts in the woods near his house
I remember road trips with my friends Adam and Micah
I still remember the inside jokes of my friends from childhood and college
Even today, when I meet people and tell them where i’m from and where i’ve lived over the years they respond, “why come to Wichita?” And honestly outside of truly believing God called my family and I to wichita I can’t give them a good answer. But I have a very quick answer as to why I want to stay in Wichita. And thats because of the friendships we have here.
And its not because of the hot summer nor the windy winters
Friendship is truly a gift of God
17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Friendship is one of the ways God reveals himself to his people
Its
Prov
24 A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
In the Bible we see that true friends are closer than brothers
Many of your f
We see that friends are the ones who call us out when we are slipping into sin
Job says that one “who withholds kindness from a friend has forsakes the fear of the Almighty.”
Job even says that one “who withholds kindness from a friend has forsakes the fear of the Almighty.”
In other words, if you fear God, you better show kindness to your friends.”
That is how important friendship is to God.
Now, as we get into James chapter 4 this theme of friendship is like a stake I want to put into the ground in order to us understand whats going on.
There are some passages in the bible that are more difficult to understand than others, and this is one of them.
James seems to go all over the place
But i believe if we understand what he is saying about friendship with God and friendship with the world we will be able to navigate this passage the right way.
Let’s pray.
There are some among the churches James is writing to who are not living as friends of God, but rather as friends of the world.
peacemakers are friends of God
Abraham was a friend of God.
4 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.
Now in Chapter 2:23 James talks about faith and works, and how through a working faith Abraham was called a friend of God.
And here in chapter 4 James is rebuking the people for being friends with the world.
Friendship in the bible is a very serious thing.
today we often view friendship as something that is
temporary not permanent
preferred but not imperative
We often think of friendship as something that makes our already formed and established lives better.
However, in the Bible friends were closer than family.
Your friends were the most important people and relationships in your life.
Your friends were your councilors, they were the ones who would sit with you for weeks to comfort you in your sorrow - like Job’s friends.
Job’s friends sat with him for a whole week before they even said a word.
friends love was so deep that he would die for you, as Jesus did for us.
a friend’s devotion was real that he would even kill for you like Hushai did for David.
a friend would sacrifice everything for you, as Jonathan did David.
friends love was so deep that he would die for you, as Jesus did for us.
When Jesus was having the last supper with James and the other disciples he said this to them...
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
John 15:12-
James knows the importance of being a friend of God.
Biblical Friendship truly matters
If you were offered a huge promotion with a 300% raise, but you had to move from Wichita to New York, you would either move your friends with you or you would probably say no to the job because to take it would be to leave your friends.
biblical friendship is thicker than blood, more important that money, and more treasured than life itself.
So when James says..
4 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.
You adulterous people! do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
If you chose to have this sort of love, this sort of devotion, this sort of bond with the world than you are at enmity (hostile or hatred) toward God.
This friendship covenant is so serious that to be friends with the world is to in effect, bind your heart, body and soul, to another.
To emphasize his point, James calls them an adulterous people!
The word here translated “adulterous” is in the feminine form, meaning a better translation would be, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?”
“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
The reason James uses the feminine form of the noun calling them adulteresses is that he wants to harken back to prophets who called Israel as an unfaithful bride.
Israel as an unfaithful bride who desired friendship with the world.
She started to be attracted to what the world had to offer
The viewpoints and social agendas of the world started to make sense.
She began to find more security in what other nations had to offer than in the promises of God.
She became lax in worship, and sacrifice.
She grew in her neglect and ignorance of the law
And eventually she chased after strange gods, and gave herself to them.
James is seeing this same sort of behavior happening in the young churches he is writing too.
He is seeing these young Christians beginning to act like an unfaithful bride, like an adulteress, and as a good prophet he must rebuke them and call them to repentance.
In James rebuke in verse 4 he says, “Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Let me make this point, when James speaks of the WORLD he is not talking about
unsaved people -
as if you should not be friends with those who are not saved
Culture, entertainment, trends, music, hobbies, or anything like that.
(Music) James is not interested in trying to say that if you love a certain kind of music than you love the world
(Alcohol) He is not saying that if you drink alcohol than you are drinking the worlds beverage.
(Movies) Or if you go to a movie that is not a Christian movie than you are a friend of the world.
This is not what James is saying.
What James is saying when he says we should not be a “friend of the world” is that we must not love, approve, affirm, enjoy, rest in, or bind ourselves to anything that opposes character and holiness of God.
If we affirm as good that which God has called evil we have then made ourselves friends with the world.
The world James speaks of is the system of the world that stands opposed to the kingdom of God.
It is the wisdom from below that is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic
It is the kingdom of darkness
The world James speaks of is everything that stands opposed and rebels against the kingship of Christ.
So why is James concerned that these young believers are move toward a friendship with the world? What is happening in their context that would cause James to speak with this prophetic rebuke?
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Fights, Quarrels, and Passions
Fights, Quarrels, and Passions
James has heard that the churches are fight and quarreling among themselves.
This is not outside persecution that is causing the tension, rather its strife from within.
I think thats interesting, historically fight and quarrels from the outside actually strengthens the church, but what destroys churches is when the people fight and quarrel with each other.
And this is what James addressing… Look at
1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter of James B. True Wisdom Brings Peace (3:13–4:3)
vv. 13–18 prepare the way perfectly for James’s rebuke of quarreling in the church.
So James begins with a rhetorical question, “What causes quarrels and what causes fight among you?”
What sort of quarrels and fights?
James does not care about the issue they are fighting about.
If they are fighting about the color of the carpets
or the volume of the music during worship
Rather, James is far more concerned about source of these quarrels, which are the passions at war within them
Disagreements happen all the time. And resolution to disagreements are always available..
But in our lives, when we come into a conflict, and it leads to fighting and quarreling, it has very little to do with the issue of the conflict and much more to do with your heart.
What are the passions waging war within the people?
The greek word for passion is ἡδονή which is where we get our word hedonism.
hedonism in the bible always refers to seeking sinful pleasure
So the people in this church are involved in is an internal struggle where their flesh desires sinful, self-seeking, self-exalting pleasure and these passions are at war within them.
Th
whats causing the fights within the indvidual the people is the same thing that is causing the fight within the community.
James has already told us, bitter jealousy and selfish ambition.
The first part of verse 2 expands on the nature of these sinful passions that are waring within the community.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter of James B. True Wisdom Brings Peace (3:13–4:3)
We do not know what the disputes that James refers to were about. The fact that James does not comment directly on the issues involved suggests that his concern was more with the selfish spirit and bitterness of the quarrels than with the rights and wrongs of the various viewpoints.
We do not know what the disputes that James refers to were about. The fact that James does not comment directly on the issues involved suggests that his concern was more with the selfish spirit and bitterness of the quarrels than with the rights and wrongs of the various viewpoints.
2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.
2
You desire and do not have, so you murder
have these sinful passions gone so far as to lead the Christians to murder each other?
so you murder
To understand this verse we need to know what the author means.
Have these young Christians actually been killing each other out of some jealous rage?
Is James concerned that things have gotten so bad with this church that some of the ex zealots are starting to go back to their old ways by killing each other?
I don’t think this is what James is saying.
James words throughout this letter have been drenched in analogy.
What James is saying is that when you are friends with the world, jealousy, wanting something and not getting it, is such a strong passion that it can lead to murder
cain and able
Saul and David
Joseph and his brothers
Saul and David.
There is also spiritual sense to this idea as well. Jealousy leads to hate, always.
If you desire something that someone else has, and the feeling of jealousy festers, it will lead to you hating the person that has that which you desire.
And when you despise and hate someone, you have, as Jesus says, murdered them in your heart.
or as John says in that anyone who hates his brother is a murderer.
15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
So James is warning them that the path of jealously, wanting what you do not have, will lead toward hate and murder.
1 john 1
James then says, “You covet and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.”
This is what you do when you are a friend of the world.
so you fight and quarrel
I want that toy.
“you cannot have that toy”
You want something and don’t get it, you fight and quarrel
The child then fights and quarrels in order to get that toy
We see this with
You do not have, because you do not ask.
When you’re a friend of the world you don’t receive from God the wisdom you need because you don’t ask him for his wisdom.
Then in verse three he says,
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
When
James rebukes these Christians for viewing God like a cosmic vending machine for self-gratification.
we must never go to God thinking he will give us what you want so your own pleasures will be fulfilled.
2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet 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 wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
This is perhaps the height of arrogance, to think that God exists to fulfill our desires.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
2
For God to fulfill our desires he first transforms our hearts and affections so that we desire the heart of God.
Yet, what we find in scripture is that God desires to answer our prayers when we pray toward the end to which God has created us for.
When we are a friend of God, we long for the things that bring glory to God.
When we are a friend of the world, we long fo the things that are detestable to God.
We should not view God like a vending machine, rather we go to him as our Father. And we want that which comes from the hands of our Father.
And when we are a friend of God, our hearts and desires are formed toward his perfect will. Thus when we pray we long for that which he desires to give to his people.
Yet if you are a friend of the world your prayers will not answered, but rather only dread is coming to you.
This is why Solomon says,
24 What the wicked dreads will come upon him,
but the desire of the righteous will be granted.
24
So what are these young Christians to do?
They have begun down the path of friendship with the world, how are they to return to friendship with God?
James wants them to repent from their selfish desires, their pride, their fighting and quarreling, and he wants them to repent from chasing after the hedonistic passions the world offers its friends.
So James reminds them of the character of God toward his people
5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
James describes grace like a tidal wave, that washes over the repentant sinner.
Though our sins are great, God gives more grace
Though our passions are evil and abound within us, God gives more grace.
Though our thoughts are perverse, God gives more grace
Though our words are are stained with jealousy and hate, God gives more grace.
Therefore, James is telling us that we are to humble ourselves, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble”
James then offers two profound promises to those who humble themselves before God and are given more grace.
Two Profound Promises
Two Profound Promises
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
English Standard Version Chapter 4
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
James is saying telling us to
place ourselves under his kingship
Humble ourselves before God
recognize that he is the God and we are not.
And with a life submitted to King Jesus, James give us two promises...
Promise 1: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Promise 2: Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
Promise 1: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you
Promise 1: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you
The devil is a coward; when he is resisted or opposed, with a life that is submitted to God and a prayer that claims the victory of Jesus on the cross, he knows he is beaten.
If you stand against the devil, he will flee.
Whatever power Satan may have, you can be absolutely certain that you have been give the ability to overcome that power.
What does it look like to resist the devil?
by being submitted to christ.
being submitted to christ.
following Christ
by reading, and studying and spending time with Christ
by keeping Christ at the center of your life.
Satan picks on those who are far from God, because when you are far from God you don’t know how to resist him.
When you are far from God, when you are acting like a friend of the world, there is nothing in you that wants to resist.
But when you are close to God, you remember his promises, you remember his power, you remember his presence. And you can resist the devil. And when you do, he flees.
The way we resist evil is by submitting to God and drawing near to God which brings us to our second promise.
Promise 2: Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
Promise 2: Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
(Not salvation for unbelievers) The promise that God will draw near to those who draw near to him does not apply to the salvation of unbelievers.
For we see all throughout the bible that we are saved because God comes to us.
There is no meeting in the middle when it comes to salvation.
For we were dead in our sins, and we were made alive through the power of God.
So we do not proclaim this promise to unbelievers, we do not tell them that if they draw near to God than God will draw near to them.
that would be a works based salvation which we, along with the scriptures, must reject!
Rather, this promise is for the restoration to fellowship of Christians.
Like the father of the prodigal son, God stands aways ready to welcome back his children who turn from their sinful ways.
Like the Father, God is ready and waiting.
he longs to establish a friendship with you, a friendship deeper, stronger, and more satisfying than you can ever imagine.
God does not keep you far away, he does not punish, but rather he promises to draw near to you.
James is wants to encourage these wayward Christians to repent and return to friendship with God.
He has told them that God is a gracious God
He has told them to submit themselves to God
to resist the devil and to draw near to God and God will draw near to them.
So what does it look like for the Christians to do this? what does it look like to walk this path of repentance?
What does it look like to relinquish a friendship with the world and turn back to God?
James goes on to explain the path of repentance.
The Path of Repentance
The Path of Repentance
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double-minded
cleanse y
James gives the external and internal aspects of the same action.
The external is, “Wash your hands, you sinners,” and the internal is, “purify your hearts, you double-minded” (v. 8b).
This is a call to clean up both one’s acts and inner life.
James is being very aggressive, calling these brothers in Christ, sinners and double-minded.
Yet, he see’s these young Christians living as two-souled people
allegiance to God and allegiance to the world
Friend of God and friend of the world.
As James has already said, it is an impossibility to be a friend both to God and to the world.
For to be a friend to the would is to be an enemy of God.
So the first step in the path of repentance is to actually repent, to turn from this double-mindedness and submit completely to Christ.
Both in action - wash your hands. And in heart - cleans your hearts.
James then wants them to respond to their sin appropriately
9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
James calls his people to exhibit a heartfelt sorrow for sin that is the mark of true repentance.
Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
This is what Paul calls a “godly sorrow that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. “
James see’s repentance of sin as a holistic event. We don’t just intellectually agree with God that we have sinned. (head)
We don’t just change our actions (hands)
But we also emotionally respond to our rebelling against God. (heart)
Example:
We often want to skip this part of repentance. We often don’t want to show any emotion over our sin.
We so often want to pretend everything is alright when in fact it’s not.
We want to mask the pain our sin has caused us by laughing and pretending to be joyful.
But what James says is to not fake it, don’t be false to the truth.
For when we experience the overwhelming grace of God poured out on us we are released from hiding our sorrow over sin.
For our laughing should be turned into mourning and our joy should be turned to gloom.
For when we experience the overwhelming grace of God poured out on us we are released from hiding our sorrow.
We see that Jesus himself mourns over the sins of the people, we should likewise mourn over our own sins.
a death of something that had power over you
This is part of humbling ourselves before God
We humble ourselves before God by submitting to him
a death of something that kept you feeling guilty
We humble ourselves before God by repenting of our sins
We humble ourselves before God be mourning over our sins
Yet, the Christian life is not one of mourning and sorrow, for it is foundationally a life of joy and celebration.
7-10 The antidote
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
When we walk the path of repentance, when we die to ourselves, when we humble ourselves before him and draw near to him he promises to exalt us.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter of James V. A Summons to Spiritual Wholeness (4:4–10)
To “humble ourselves before the Lord” means to recognize our own spiritual poverty, to acknowledge consequently our desperate need of God’s help, and to submit to his commanding will for our lives
He will raise you up
He will turn your mourning into dancing
He will turn your gloom into joy
He will turn your crying into singing
And your life will be one of renewed fellowship with God.
This is the death and resurrection pattern we see throughout God’s revelation.
We die to self, and we are raised in Christ.
We die to sin, and we are exalted in Glory.
We must never be afraid of death, for without death we experience no resurrection.
Church, This is our hope, that though our sin brings us to the grave, there is more grace which raises us from the dead and we are exalted with Christ.
Lets pray.