The Friend Of The World

1/4/97

THE FRIEND OF THE WORLD
GENESIS 13:19

James identifies Abraham as “the friend of God.” He does this because of the intimate relationship that developed
between the living God and Abraham across the years of his life. In his little letter James refers to another character
as “the friend of the world.” He writes, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is
hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” When I read
about this “friendship with the world” I am reminded of Lot, the nephew of Abraham.

The brief biographical section that relates the life of Lot to us in the book of Genesis demonstrates the folly of
friendship with the world. Lot is explained by Simon Peter as a righteous man whose soul was “vexed” by the
sinfulness of Sodom. He is indeed a man who knew the living God, and had reason to fear the living God, and yet
choose to make too much of his relationship with this world. In the process instead of becoming the friend of God
like Abraham, he became a friend of the world.

Every one of us stand in danger of becoming a friend of the world. We are more likely to become a friend of the
world than we are the friend of God.   There is a natural inclination in us in that direction. But before we choose
friendship with the world over the friendship with God, let’s do a study on the life of Lot to make sure that is the
course that we want to follow.

I. HIS CHOICE
That Lot was on the way to becoming the friend of the world, became obvious when he was confronted with a major
choice. It occurred when God had so prospered Abraham and Lot that their herds were too much for the land.
Because of the size of their holdings the herdsmen of the two men began to quarrel with each other. It was Abraham
who suggested to Lot that they separate and take their herds in opposite directions. The big hearted and generous
Abraham left the choice up to Lot. If Lot chooses to go to the right, then he would go to the left. If Lot chooses to go
to the left, then Abraham would go to the right.

Lot took advantage of this opportunity to demonstrate that his character was a mixed character. Even though he
knew the God of Abraham, he did not make his choice in the light of his knowledge of Abraham. Instead Moses tells
us that, “Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like
the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) So Lot choose for
himself the whole plane of the Jordan and set out toward the East.” His choice was obviously a very selfish choice.

The values reflected in his choice were the values of this world. While Abraham was throughout his lifetime a seeker
after the city of God, Lot was seeking a place in this world. In that period of history the most prosperous and wicked
spot on the earth was the cities of the plains, Sodom and Gormorrah. Lot chooses to make his home on the plains
near Sodom. He did it for one reason – it was the place that would bring to him the greatest material prosperity. His
choice was the choice of a friend of this world.

Choices have a way of revealing what we really are in our hearts. I remember a story that made the rounds in my
home state of Tennessee when I was a teenager. We had a rather popular governor in our state during those days,
Frank Clements. Governor Clements was a man who could quote the Bible, give moving speeches, but who was
pretty much a man of this world. The story that made the rounds in that day was of some parents who wanted to
know about the future of their child. So they put their child in a room with three items on a table. They placed a
Bible, a bottle of liquor, and a stack of money. They placed their child in such a position that he would have to
choose one of the three. If he chooses the money then they knew he would be a businessman. If he chooses the
Bible then they would know that he was to be a preacher. If he chooses the liquor then they would know that he was
to follow a path of indulgence. To their embarrassment their son chooses all three. He put the money in his pocket,
put the Bible under his arm, and picked up the liquor and began to drink. The dad exclaimed to the mother “Oh, my
soul, another Frank Clements! He is going to be a politician!” Choices do have a way of revealing who we are.

The choices that you made over the past week, do they reflect your confidence in God? Would someone who
observed you making those choices know for sure that you knew and feared the living God? Or, would your choices
simply reflect that you are a man or woman of the world, a friend of the world?

II. HIS COURSE
The course of the man of this world is rather predictable. It is said of Lot in the historic account, “Abram lived in the
land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plains and pitched his tents near Sodom.”   At first, evidently,
Lot did not become a citizen of Sodom, rather he simply moved to a spot near Sodom. It is of interest however, that
when we come to that climatic end of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, that when the two angels appearing as men
come through the gates of the city of Sodom, they find Lot sitting at the gate. This may well indicate that at this point
in his life Lot had become such a part of the structure of Sodom that he was actually sitting on the city council. The
gate of that city in that ancient day was the place where the business of the city was transacted. And Lot is sitting at
the gate.

This is an indication of the course of the friend of the world. No one sets out on a course to live a life of complete
opposition to God. No one makes a deliberate choice to be a friend of the world rather than a friend of God.
Rather, one sets out on a course of compromise and attempts to still be a friend of God while making the most of life
in this world. But the course is always one that is downward. Increasingly there is in the life less of the things of God
and more of the things of the world.

When the two angels appeared in the city of Sodom with the purpose of bringing judgement upon the city, there is
nothing to indicate that Lot recognized them as being messengers from God.   Rather he seems to have viewed
them as two ordinary strangers who have come to the cities to spend the night. When the two had appeared at the
doorway to Abraham’s tent, Abraham has such spiritual sensitivity that he had known at once that they were
messengers of God. The course of friendship with the world is one of an increasing loss of sensitivity to God, of the
values of the things of God, and an increasing comfort with the things of the world.

This might be an appropriate moment to ask myself and to ask you, do the sins of the world about me bother me less
or bother me more than they did five years ago? Is my sensitivity to God greater or less than it was a year ago? Am
I hearing the Lord speak more clearly or less clearly in my life? The course of friendship with the world is one that is
downward and into spiritual darkness. Beware! Beware! The friendship with the world that so many pursue is
moving in the wrong direction.

III. HIS COMPANIONS
When the extended chapter describing the judgement on Sodom and Gormorrah opens, we find Lot living rather
comfortably in the city of Sodom. We know something about the citizenry of that city. The character of the citizens of
that city became obvious when the two strangers were taken into the home of Lot. As evening began the men of the
city came knocking on the door demanding an opportunity to have a sexual relationship with these two men who
were in the home of Lot. The conversation between Lot and these two men is very revealing. Like a good man of
that part of the world in that period in history, he was prepared to do anything within his power to protect those who
had come into his home. It was the law of the desert that you protected a guest in your home with life itself if
necessary. Lot was prepared to do that. In fact he was prepared to offer his two virgin daughters to these men for
the satisfaction of their carnal lust. These were his companions. These were his friends.

He had spurned the companionship of Abram in order to gain a place in the world. He had moved away from the
places where he would have opportunity to walk in fellowship with Abraham so that he could gain a place in the
world. Someone has said in the past, “Choose your friends very carefully for you will become like your friends.”
That is a frightening thought! When Lot chose to be a friend with the citizens of Sodom, it wasn’t long until some of
Sodom began to find its way into his heart and even more of it into the heart of his wife and his daughters.

Let me just ask you a question. Who are your primary companions in life! Do you feel more at home with the beer
sipping crowd at the country club than you do with a prayer group at the Church? Do you feel more comfortable with
men whose obvious love is money than you do with a fellowship of men who have a heart to know God and to study
His Word? The friendship of the world brings into the life those companionships that are destructive in their
influence and in their impact.

IV. HIS CONTRIBUTION
When you contrast Abraham and Lot at the point of their contribution to history, the contrast is obvious. Abraham’s
life continues to bless the human family until this very day. How do you measure the contribution of Lot? The
primary contribution of Lot as presented in Genesis was the Ammonites and Moabites. Amon and Moab were born in
shame. The story of their birth is one of sensuality and incest. The two daughters of Lot enticed their father to drink
too much wine and made him drunk. While he was in a drunken stupor each of the daughters lay with him sexually
and conceived a child. The older daughter named the son born out of this incestuous relationship Moab. The
younger daughter named her son born out of the same kind of incestuous relationship Ben-ammi or Amon.

We know from scripture that these descendants of Lot lived on the edge of the land of promise, but never in the land
of promise. We know that their history was one of enmity toward Israel and the descendants of Abraham. We know
that they missed out on God’s saving purpose that He was making known to Abraham. So the contribution of the
friend of the world was as James suggested that it would be – an enemy against God. I don’t think that Lot set out to
be an enemy of God. Lot set out to make the most of this world and to be a friend to the world. He didn’t mean to
abandon his fear of God; rather he just wanted to make sure that he got the most out of life. He wanted to live in a
big house in Sodom. But when his life stands in the light of eternity to be evaluated his contribution was enmity
against God. He conceived sons and raised a family that stood in opposition to the purpose of God throughout the
years of history that were just ahead.

For what you know about your life now, what will your contribution be? Are you raising sons and daughters,
grandsons and granddaughters that will be the enemy of God? Has your friendship with the world so affected those
who are about you, those that are close to you, that they will live in opposition to the purpose of God?

Contrast that with the descendants of Abraham. Obviously the descendants were not perfect but it was through the
seed of Abraham that Jesus of Nazareth came. Salvation is of the Jews. If you want to make a contribution to this
world that is going to last and make a difference, then cultivate a friendship with God. Walk close to God. Become a
person of faith and obedience. It is in the pathway of faith and obedience that you are able to make a contribution to
the kingdom of God that will last through the ages.

Dr. J. B. Phillips, an English churchman, in a book of daily devotional thoughts uses an illustration from the English
countryside to demonstrate the folly of being a friend of the world. He likens the friend of the world to the English
harvest mice. These little mice make their way into the field when the grain is growing and think they have found an
ideal place in which to settle and bring up a family. Food, shelter, and building material are there in plenty and
everything seems to be perfectly adapted for their needs. The forest of innumerable corn stalks is their whole world,
and in it they court and play, mate and bring up their families. Their happiness seems to be complete.

Until the harvest. For when the day comes for the owner of the field to reap his harvest, tragedy inevitably begins for
the harvest mouse. The whole world of waving corn which seemed so snug and secure, so specially designed for his
comfort and nourishment, comes crashing about his ears.

The field which he thought was his world never really belonged to him at all, and the fact that the growing corn was
not meant for his food and shelter has, alas, not entered his tiny head.

This is not a bad picture of the way in which some people live in this world. They, too, work and play, court and get
married and bring children in the happy belief that this is their world, and that the belief in an eventual harvest is an
old fashioned and silly idea. Yet, our Lord has promised that there will be a harvest. And if you have made this
world your home, the harvest day will be one of terrible tragedy. Lot made too much of this world and not enough of
the world to come. In the process he became a friend of the world and lost everything except his soul. May that not
happen to any of you!