James 4:4

NIV: You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

The Message: You're cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way.

Being a friend of the world makes you an enemy of God.

Well, James tells it like it is, no beating around the bush with him, or trying to dress things up to make them sound better than they actually are. We can't be friends with the world and friends with God. We have to choose, take sides. And why is this? Because the prince of this world is that old enemy, the deceiver, satan, the angel of light:

2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (NIV)

When we become friends with the world, we become friends with the ruler of the world, satan. How, as Christians, can that be?

Just take a look around you, at the people you see, the ones you meet and watch how they behave, what they say, what they do. There are people who cheat on their wives or husbands, those who lie on a regular basis, some who cheat, steal, borrow with no intention of giving back. There are others who turn up for work five minutes late every day, take smoke breaks, have a longer coffee break than anyone else. There have certainly been plenty of MP's here who have claimed far more in expenses than they really should have. It’s not just the fact that there are the drug dealers, child pornographers, murderers, thieves, rapists and so on out there, there are also all sorts of people (the likes of you and I) doing things each and every day that really grieve God.

Any sin separates us from God, any sin at all, no matter whether we consider it to be a small one, a little white lie (e.g. telling our wife/husband that the reason we were late home is because we were working late when in reality we went out for a drink after work), or a big one, committing adultery, sleeping around and so on.

If we are friends with people who drink to excess, sleep around, swear all the time, then sooner or later, we will pick up their habits, start having that extra drink, using the odd swear word in our conversation, etc. If we are friends with those who commit crimes (burgle houses, pick pockets, breaking and entering and so on), then their way of life will become commonplace, nothing exceptional. The habits and behaviour of those we mix with can rub off on us. After all, who wants to be the odd one out, the one who is thought of as a fuddy duddy, old fashioned and stuck in the mud? What can be the harm if everyone else is doing it?

Of course, the opposite is true too, If we are friends with those who spend their time worshipping God, giving Him the praise and glory, turning to Him when things get tough, putting God first in their lives, then this will rub off on us too.

James is telling us here is that when we become friends with the world, when we look to others for their approval, try and fit in, be one of the crowd and not stand out, act like everyone else around us, then that is when we become enemies of God. When we set our hearts and our minds on the things of this world, on friendship with others, when we effectively turn our backs on God as we seek the endorsement of others, their praise, their admiration, when we look to others all the time instead of God, then we become friends with the world and enemies of God.

Of course, there are times when we want to get the approval and respect of others, that is only natural. We all want to be looked up to, respected, thought well of. But when that is the be all and end all of life, when we are living to please others, to fit in, be the same as everyone else, that is when we run the risk of ignoring God in our lives.

Look at the moral decline in this country and many countries in the west. When I was a child, it was really frowned upon (to say the least) if you had a baby without being married. It just wasn't done. Nowadays, I think the statistics here are something like 40% of all babies are born to unmarried parents (over 50% in Scotland). We have one of the highest teenage birth rates in Europe. Divorce rates are, depending on where you get your statistics from, either one in three or up to one in two marriages ending in divorce. My mother once proudly told me that her neighbour had a son or daughter that had divorced and she (my mother) must have done something right as all her children were still married. Unfortunately, she can now no longer make that claim due to certain escapades of one of my brothers!

When we set our sights, our hearts, on the things of this world, when we become a follower of the prince of this world, turning our back on God's word, on His blueprint for how we should live out lives, then this is what happens.

Yet again, everything boils down to where our heart is, what really matters deep inside to each one of us. Do we want to be liked, admired, by those around us, to fit in, be the same as everyone else, act and talk the same way, have the same priorities, standards, or do we want to live our lives as God would have us live them? Receiving His Son as our Lord and Saviour, living our lives for God, not to satisfy our own desires?

Where is your heart? Where is your friendship?