This blog was written by my wife, Kelly. I am humbly and inexpressibly thankful to our Lord for giving me such a caring, empathetic and loving wife. It is both a privilege and honor to be able to serve the Lord alongside of her. She truly is a ministry partner. She is a woman who is filled with wisdom and compassion. To God be the glory! I pray that her insight is a blessing to you as you read her words.
James 4:4 says, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Does this scripture seem a little harsh? Does being friendly to the world always mean we are hostile toward God? Aren’t we supposed to be friendly toward those around us even if they aren’t believers? Why would scripture refer to us as adulterers if we are only trying to love the world around us? To answer these questions, we will have to dig into this verse a bit deeper.
First of all, let’s consider the meaning of the word adulteress. This term refers to someone who commits adultery. It is one who casts away a commitment to another in order to give full attention to something or someone else. In this verse, the adulteress is forsaking the One True God and progressing toward friendship with the world.
The word “friendship” that is used in James 4:4 is the Greek word philia, meaning fondness. The warning in this verse is that those who turn away from God to love the world are considered hostile enemies of God. As believers, we can understand this statement, but there is an even sadder truth when considering this snippet of scripture. Only our Heavenly Father can offer us an unquenchable, unending, unconditional love. The Bible is clear that nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:31-39). Who would disregard a love like this? Who would trade an unfathomable love for a feeling of fondness? No wonder the Lord considers friendship with the world to be hostility toward Him. God, out of His love and mercy, has freely given Himself to humanity, and we choose to exchange it for a love that fades away, a love that takes advantage. How our Father’s heart must break.
We see this sad reality play out throughout scripture. I can’t help but think of Esau who exchanged his birthright for a bit of stew. He traded his purpose and future to meet a temporal craving of the flesh. (Genesis 25:29-34) Israel had been led by the very Hand of God, cared for, provided for and brought up into the Promised Land. Still His people cried out for an earthy king to lead them (1 Samuel 8). They traded the King of kings for a mere man.
This, beloved, is the downfall of humanity: taking the most perfect, precious gift of God Himself and trading for the mundane, the common. We must make the choice each day. Either we will walk with Him or we will walk away from Him.
The Bible clearly gives us this admonition, “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” (Romans 1:25) Life is full of compromise and trade-offs. Let us walk in diligence and allegiance to the True King of Kings.
– Kelly
Corby Shuey 