Bible Reading
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
James 4:4-6
James 4:4-6
Devotional
A common literary or speech-giving technique is known as the callback. It means that later on in a story or speech, the writer or speaker refers to something which was mentioned much earlier. It is a way to connect the whole of the book, movie, or speech into one cohesive story with a continued thread that runs throughout, but done in a way that you, the one listening or watching, didn't notice until the callback revealed this subtle connection to you.
James chose the words of his book carefully and in this passage, chooses a word that has a specific meaning and connection to something which took place much earlier. The word enmity, found in verse four, is also found in one other place in the Bible. Way back in Genesis chapter 3, thousands of years earlier, God describes, in what is known as the proto-evangelism, or the first gospel, that the seed of the women and the seed of the serpent will live in enmity with each other. The word enmity is better defined as a blood feud. The bloodline of Jesus, which would pass through Seth all the way to Jesus, would be engaged in a continual feud or spiritual war with the seed of Cain, also known as the seed of Satan. This feud, between good and evil, darkness and light, heaven and hell, would continue throughout and become the main focus of the entire Old Testament. At every turn, there was an evil attempt to destroy the bloodline of Jesus through murder, infanticide, war, compromise and enslavement. This was done to prevent the birth of Jesus and thwart his plan of redemption. Every attempt failed because God had his divine hand of protection upon the entire process, and the result is that Jesus would be born and ultimately defeat sin and death. The story is all connected and it all points to Jesus. Even our own story is connected to this story in a deeper way than you could ever imagine.
James declares that friendship with the world is enmity with God. What he means by this is that you cannot have friendship with a fallen world and a depraved society and also friendship with God. It is not possible. You cannot be filled with both dark and light, or walk the path of both good and evil. You must choose one or the other. Many of the so-called Christians in James' day were trying to do both! They were attempting to be friends with God and the world at the same time. This is why James calls them adulterous people. That would be like attempting to love your wife and another woman at the same time. But you cannot do this without engaging in adultery! Today we still live in a society where spiritual adultery runs rampant. The good news is that God is full of grace and will forgive you. You need only to repent and turn away from sin. Those who do not repent but stand in arrogant defiance will not but forgiven, for God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. Simply put, those who humble themselves and repent before God will be forgiven, but those who stand in pride will never be able to accept God's grace and choose to remain apart from him.
James chose the words of his book carefully and in this passage, chooses a word that has a specific meaning and connection to something which took place much earlier. The word enmity, found in verse four, is also found in one other place in the Bible. Way back in Genesis chapter 3, thousands of years earlier, God describes, in what is known as the proto-evangelism, or the first gospel, that the seed of the women and the seed of the serpent will live in enmity with each other. The word enmity is better defined as a blood feud. The bloodline of Jesus, which would pass through Seth all the way to Jesus, would be engaged in a continual feud or spiritual war with the seed of Cain, also known as the seed of Satan. This feud, between good and evil, darkness and light, heaven and hell, would continue throughout and become the main focus of the entire Old Testament. At every turn, there was an evil attempt to destroy the bloodline of Jesus through murder, infanticide, war, compromise and enslavement. This was done to prevent the birth of Jesus and thwart his plan of redemption. Every attempt failed because God had his divine hand of protection upon the entire process, and the result is that Jesus would be born and ultimately defeat sin and death. The story is all connected and it all points to Jesus. Even our own story is connected to this story in a deeper way than you could ever imagine.
James declares that friendship with the world is enmity with God. What he means by this is that you cannot have friendship with a fallen world and a depraved society and also friendship with God. It is not possible. You cannot be filled with both dark and light, or walk the path of both good and evil. You must choose one or the other. Many of the so-called Christians in James' day were trying to do both! They were attempting to be friends with God and the world at the same time. This is why James calls them adulterous people. That would be like attempting to love your wife and another woman at the same time. But you cannot do this without engaging in adultery! Today we still live in a society where spiritual adultery runs rampant. The good news is that God is full of grace and will forgive you. You need only to repent and turn away from sin. Those who do not repent but stand in arrogant defiance will not but forgiven, for God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. Simply put, those who humble themselves and repent before God will be forgiven, but those who stand in pride will never be able to accept God's grace and choose to remain apart from him.