Part 1
“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.”-James 4:1-3
As I was studying James this I week, I was reminded that life is about two paths. There are always two choices, two directions, two options that we can choose that determine our destiny in life. Over the past couple of weeks we have talked about the contrasts between earthly wisdom and heavenly wisdom, however throughout the Bible we see this concept of two play out in many ways: light vs. darkness, life vs. death, sowing vs. reaping, the narrow road vs. the broad road, spirit vs. flesh, and found vs. lost.
Each of these represent an on ramp onto a path that has a very specific destination-heaven or hell. Which path we are on is based on the decisions that we make. Decisions that draw us near to God or that separate us from Him.
What James discovered and so eloquently penned for us is that the greatest obstacle to us having a vibrant, intimate, meaningful relationship with God is ourself. There is in each one of us a desire to know God that is tempted by the intense desire to please ourselves. This pursuit of wealth, pleasure, and personal gratification is what we commonly referred to as worldliness. James has a lot to say about embracing worldly things:
“You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.”-James 4:4
Adultery? Spiritual adultery, as mentioned in this passage, is when a person breaks their vows to love and serve God and follow idols instead. To have an affair with worldliness is akin to having a mistress that estranges us from God (our first love). Do you see two paths emerging once again: spouse and mistress? God is jealous for you! He wants our undivided loyalty and faithfulness and regardless of how many times that we confess to love God, when we pursue worldliness we are communicating a completely different story. We are communicating a love of self and worldly pursuits.
“Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him.”-James 4:5
James declares that you can choose to be friends with the world, but the consequence of that decision is that you become and enemy of God. Too many of us today want to be both friends with God and friends with this world. That is why God uses a marriage relationship to make this analogy. When a mistress/lover is introduced into a marriage relationship, that individual is poised to destroy a covenant established by God. They have become an enemy of your marriage, your spouse, and you. That is a friendship that cannot be sustained or maintained. No right minded individual is going to say that you can remain friends with your mistress and remain in right relationship with me. Yet, each time we dabble in the things of this world, we embolden our mistress. As long as you continue to show her attention, she lives unconvinced that she is no longer important to you.
That is precisely what God is shouting from the rooftops. You cannot remain in a relationship with this world and remain in a right relationship with Him. Many have convinced themselves that friendship with both is possible. Why? Because they do not see themselves in covenant with God. They see ourselves as friends with God and it makes no sense to them that they have to reject worldly things. They believe we can be friends with both. However, God is not interested in divided loyalty.
Pastor Scott Burr
Dayspring Community Church
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