14 The Danger of Being a Friend of the World
(James 4:1–6)
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 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. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says,” God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (4:1–6)
Another key indicator of true saving faith is one’s attitude toward the world. James introduced this subject in the first chapter, saying,” Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (1:27).
The central truth in the present passage is: “Friendship with the world is hostility toward God” (see 4:4). Genuine spiritual life and faithful Christian living involve separation from the world and all its countless contaminations. As James just noted,” the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” (3:17–18). Continuing, habitual friendship with the world, on the other hand, is grounded in human wisdom and is evidence of unbelief. Such ungodly friendship inevitably results in personal conflict—with others (4:1a), with oneself (vv. 16–3), and, most important, with God (vv. 4–6).
CONFLICT WITH OTHERS
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? (4:1a)
The Greek text of this sentence has no verb, and reads more literally. “Whence quarrels and whence conflicts among you?” Polemos (quarrels), from which we get the English “polemics,” relates to general, prolonged, and serious disputing or combat and is often rendered “war” (e.g., Matt. 24:6; Heb. 11:34; Rev. 11:7; 16:14). Conflicts translates machē, which refers to a specific fight or battle. Both terms are used here metaphorically of violent personal relationships, which, in the extreme, can result even in murder (v. 2).
Among you indicates that these combative relationships were between members of the churches to whom James wrote. As will be discussed under verse 4, some of those members obviously were not saved. And because they were thereby enemies of God, they were also enemies of each other and of true believers within the churches.
A pastor friend once told me he had discovered that the root cause of his quarreling, wrangling church board was that half of the men were saved and half were not. In such a situation, conflict is inevitable.
Paul understood this when he wrote:
Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,” I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” says the Lord Almighty. (2 Cor. 6:14–18)
Sometimes making such separation is difficult, since the separation of the wheat and tares can be done only by the Lord (Matt. 13:2430, 36–43).
But conflict within the church is not in God’s will or design. Jesus said to the disciples,” A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35), and later in His high priestly prayer He entreated His Father that believers “may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (17:21). After Pentecost,” the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them” (Acts 4:32). Paul exhorted factious church members in Corinth,” by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Cor. 1:10), and called on believers in Philippi to “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27; cf. 2:1–4).
Just as in the church since, conflict was a frequent problem in the early church. After giving Corinthian believers the exhortation just mentioned above, Paul later scolded them, saying,” I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?” (1 Cor. 3:1–3). Still later, he wrote them,” For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances” (2 Cor. 12:20).
Paul admonished Titus to tell believers under his care to remember their former lives apart from God:
Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. (Titus 3:1–3)
Such normal conflict among the unconverted sadly finds its way into the church.
CONFLICT WITH SELF
Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. (4:1 b-3)
Friendship with the world not only creates conflict with other people but also conflict within the worldly person himself. The sources of external conflicts among people invariably arise from internal conflicts within each person.
The evidences of internal conflict are legion in society today. The proliferation of psychologists and psychiatrists, counselors and therapists of all sorts; clinics for the treatment of a host of emotional and psychological disorders; the increased problems of drug addiction, domestic violence and abuse, dreadful crimes, alcoholism, and of suicide give abundant evidence that personal disorders have reached a crisis point. The increase of impatience, frustration, anger, and hostility is not only seen in street crime, but vividly portrayed on modern highways, where drivers use obscene gestures, dangerous acts of intimidation, and sometimes even gunfire to vent their displeasure at what another driver does or fails to do.
In these verses, James points out three causes of internal conflict: uncontrolled desire (4:1 b), unfulfilled desire (v. 2a), and selfish desire (vv. 2b-3).
UNCONTROLLED DESIRE
Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? (4:1b)
First, James states plainly that the source of internal conflicts is pleasures. Pleasures translates hēdonōn, from which “hedonist” and “hedonism” are derived. It connotes the gratification of sensual, natural, fleshly desires. In the New Testament the word is always used in a negative, ungodly sense. Hedonism is the uncontrolled personal desire to fulfill every passion and whim that promises sensual satisfaction and enjoyment. The desire to fulfill these pleasures comes, of course, from selfishness, which is opposed to God and the Word of God. Unbelieving, ungodly hedonists are “lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:2–4, emphasis added; cf. Jude 16–18).
Unregenerate persons are slaves to their desires, tyrannized by their passions (cf. 1 Thess. 4:3–5). Consequently, when the seed of the gospel falls on the thorny ground of their hearts,” they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity” (Luke 8:14). Speaking of unsaved and ungodly members in the church, Peter scathingly describes them in detail as
those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; … These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. (2 Pet. 2:10–14, 17–21)
When people surrender to their fleshly pleasures, giving themselves over to such sins as those just mentioned, they do so, as Peter states, under the delusion of expressing personal “freedom,” not realizing that, in actuality, they are only manifesting that they are “slaves of corruption.” They are driven by desires over which they lose control and which eventually come to control them. And because they turn their backs on God,” suppress the truth in unrighteousness,” do not “honor Him as God or give thanks, but [become] futile in their speculations” God gives “them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, … to degrading passions; [and] … to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper” (Rom. 1:18, 21, 24, 26, 28).
Despite the countless warnings by the Surgeon General and others about the dangers of unprotected sex, adulterers, fornicators, and homosexuals frequently disregard those dangers, because their sins have become obsessions and their decisions are not driven by their minds but by their emotions and their physical lusts, which have become their masters. Such outrageous behavior reflects “a depraved mind” (Rom. 1:28).
Those ungodly pleasures, in fact, wage war in your members, James says, referring not to church members, but to the physical and mental elements of the body, which contain man’s fallen flesh or human-ness (cf. Rom. 1:24; 6:12–13; 7:18, 23). It is the war of the unbeliever’s flesh with his soul and conscience, which, despite the corruption of the Fall, has enough awareness of God and His truth (Rom. 1:18–19) to be disturbed when he sins. Despite his rejection of God and His standards of righteousness, he cannot easily escape feelings of guilt; the law of God written in his heart activates his accusing conscience (Rom. 2:14–15).
The fall of man corrupted the race, affecting every part of man’s being. Yet because man is made in God’s image, he retains a certain nobility and dignity that may be reflected even in those who are unsaved. Many unbelievers are kind and generous, peace-loving and self-giving. Many are extremely talented, creating beautiful music and art, making great scientific discoveries and inventing amazing machines and technology. But without God, their fleshly impulses and passions fight against that residual nobility. And desires for the wrong kinds of pleasures, the wrong kinds of satisfaction, and selfish fulfillment inevitably wage an internal war, a war within [their] members, with everything that stands in their way.
UNFULFILLED DESIRE
You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. (4:2a)
When desires for the wrong kinds of pleasure are frustrated and unfulfilled, they also wage external war.
The verb epithumeō (to lust) refers to having a desire or longing of any kind, but the context makes it clear that the desire mentioned here is inordinate, misdirected, and sinful. James does not mention a specific object of desire, doubtless because the particular object does not matter as far as his point here is concerned. When any strong, sinful lust is not gratified, the worldly person is prone to lash out in angry frustration, sometimes even committing murder. Even the Pharisees, who lusted for the personal satisfaction of having a reputation for virtue and holiness, murdered the Savior who unmasked their hypocrisy.
Murder translates the verb phoneuō, which, in this context, could include murderous hatred, extremely destructive behavior, and even suicide. When the lusting person cannot achieve his desired goals—whether for reputation, prestige, sexual gratification, money, power, escape through drugs or alcohol, success, possessions, the affections of another person, or whatever—the result is often catastrophic to others and always destructive of oneself. Even when they were struck blind by the angels in Lot’s house, the men of Sodom were so obsessed with their perverted lust that, ignoring their blindness, they continued groping for the door in a vain attempt to gain entrance and satisfy their unrelenting passions (Gen. 19:11).
Absalom so lusted to rule Israel that he was willing even to kill his father, David, to achieve it. Ahithophel, an advisor to both David and Absalom, was also the grandfather of Bathsheba (cf. 2 Sam. 11:3; 23:34), with whom David committed adultery and later married after he had her husband, Uriah, killed in battle. Ahithophel was so enraged over that injustice that he joined forces with Absalom in his rebellion against David. But when his counsel was ignored by Absalom, Ahithophel was so frustrated and indignant that he murdered himself by strangulation (see 2 Sam. 15–17).
Zeloō, here rendered envious, is a synonym of epithumeō, and connotes an even stronger, more compelling feeling of desire. It is the word from which we get “zealous” and “zealot.” The noun form is rendered “jealously” in James 3:14, 16. When people harbor such fierce desires but cannot obtain what they covet, they fight and quarrel. Marital conflicts, family conflicts, job conflicts, national conflicts—all these are the result of unsatisfied personal lust and envying.
The Greek of verse 2 literally reads: “You lust and do not have. You kill. And you are envious and cannot obtain. You fight and quarrel.” But the so supplied by the NASB translators rightly indicates the causal relationship between lusting and killing and between envying, fighting, and quarreling.
As John makes clear,” If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (1 John 2:15–16). The lust and envy that James mentions in 4:2 are reflections of “the boastful pride of life” that characterizes the worldly passion for personal satisfaction.
You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. (4:2b-3)
As would be expected, worldly, ungodly desire not only is uncontrolled and unfulfilled but also is selfish. That James uses you and your six times in these two sentences indicates that the churches to whom he is writing included some, perhaps many, of the worldly people he describes here and addresses directly.
Leading up to his point about selfishness, James first says that worldly unbelievers do not have because they do not ask. Many of them do not even think of asking God for help of any kind, because they consider themselves self-sufficient, fully able to take care of themselves. They believe that all their needs and wants can be met by human means through their own wisdom, power, and diligence. They do not believe that “every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17). Consequently, it never occurs to them to ask Him for anything.
Many unbelievers do ask God for things, all sorts of things. But, as James continues to explain, they ask and do not receive, because they ask with wrong motives, so that they may spend it on their pleasures. They do not ask for things in order for God’s goodness and grace to be magnified or for the sake of His glory and honor. They do not ask in order to be able to fulfill His perfect and divine will but to fulfill their own sinful and selfish wills.
Aiteō (ask) is the same verb used in 1:5–6 and carries the idea of pleading, begging, imploring. But in the earlier passage James is obviously speaking of and to genuine believers, whom he admonishes: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” In 4:2–3, the asking is done or not done by those who do not belong to God and have no part in Him.
With wrong motives translates the single Greek word kakōs, which has the basic meaning of bad, evil, or wicked, as it is sometimes rendered. Linking that word to motives is appropriate but only implied.
The wrong motivation is the desire to spend God’s gifts on one’s own pleasures. Dapanaō (spend) means to completely use up or squander and was used by Jesus to describe the prodigal son’s wasteful squandering of his inheritance (Luke 15:13). The pleasures mentioned here are the same kinds as those in verse 1 that cause internal warfare, pleasures that God does not honor. Yet worldly people live for such pleasures, for the thrill of the moment, futilely trying to fulfill and gratify their fleshly lusts and intentions.
CONFLICT WITH GOD
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. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says,” God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (4:4–6)
In these verses, James marks out three characteristics of those who are in conflict with God: hostility toward God, disregard for Scripture, and pride.
HOSTILITY TOWARD GOD
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. (4:4)
Adultery is the sin of violating a marriage covenant by having sexual intimacy with someone other than a spouse. In referring to adulteresses, James uses the term metaphorically in a way that his Jewish readers would clearly understand (cf. Matt. 12:39; 16:4; Mark 8:38), referring to men as well as women. He is not talking about sexual but spiritual infidelity, as the term is often used in the Old Testament of God’s unfaithful people, Israel. Through Jeremiah, the Lord said,” I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also” (Jer. 3:8; cf. 2 Chron. 21:11, 13; Ps. 73:27). Similarly, Ezekiel spoke of Judah as an “[adulterous] wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband!” (Ezek. 16:32). As an object lesson, the Lord commanded Hosea: “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land [that is, Israel] commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord” (Hos. 1:2).
Scripture nowhere uses the terms adulterer or adulteress figuratively of Gentiles, because only Israel had a covenant relationship with God to be unfaithful to, just as husbands and wives have the covenant relationship of marriage. Gentiles could be spiritual fornicators, as it were, but not adulterers—a contemptible distinction reserved for Israel, the unfaithful wife. Whether they turned to pagan gods and idols or simply turned to the world as their supreme love, to do so was to be unfaithful to the Lord and commit spiritual adultery, a figurative name for apostasy.
Jesus spoke of unbelieving Israel of His day as “an evil and adulterous generation” (Matt. 12:39; cf. 16:4; Mark 8:38). It was because most Jews, even those who were religious, had turned away from the Lord and His revealed Word to gods of their own making and to their own man-made traditions that they did not receive Jesus as their Messiah. They used their traditions to interpret Scripture, and in doing so they strayed from and often contradicted Scripture, becoming blinded to God’s truth and even to His own Son (Matt. 15:1–9; Mark 7:1–13; Col. 2:8; cf. John 5:39–40). Despite fierce claims of faithfulness to Judaism and the God of Judaism, they were adulterous and apostate.
The same can be said of those who claim to be Christians and attach themselves to the church but have no saving relationship to God or love for Him or His Word. They were found even in the early church, and James calls them adulteresses. There is no middle ground. As will be discussed below, you can no more spiritually have two gods than you can legally have two spouses.
Friendship translates the noun philia, which is used only here in the New Testament. Its verb form, phileō, is often rendered “love” (e.g., Matt. 6:5; 10:37; 1 Cor. 16:22) and is even used of the Father’s love for the Son (John 5:20) and of the Father’s and the Son’s love for those who have saving faith (John 11:3; 16:27; Rev. 3:19). Though they are often used as synonyms in the New Testament, the more common and stronger verb for love (agapaō) seems to be more volitional, whereas phileō is more emotional. James uses philia to describe intense and deep affection for the evil world system.
The related noun philos (friend) was used of close personal relationships. Perhaps the clearest definition of this word is reflected in Jesus’ teaching in John 15:13–19, where the highest volitional love (agapē) and the highest emotional, affectionate love (philos) are both willing to give the ultimate sacrifice for those who are loved. “Greater love [agapē] has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends [philos],” those for whom he has philos love (v. 13). He then explains that love for Him is tested by obedience to His Word: “You are My friends [philos] if you do what I command you” (v. 14). At their highest, both loves involve the bonds of self-sacrifice and of obedience. They also involve personal intimacy.
No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends [philos], for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. (vv. 15–16)
Jesus’ true friends are those who have received Him as Lord and Savior, who share a common cause, common interests, and common objectives. And those who truly love Him will also “love one another” (v. 17). Finally, He explains that those who truly love Him will not love the world or be loved by the world, since the world is the hostile enemy of God. Jesus confirmed that reality when He said,” If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you” (vv. 1819; cf. 17:14). Thus did the apostle John command believers:
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15–17)
Those, on the other hand, who do not belong to Christ belong to the world. They have a longing to be involved with the world’s drives, impulses, attractions, and people, for which they have a determined and habitual attachment. For that reason, James cannot be referring to believers who are temporarily attracted by the things of the world and fall into sin for a while. He is not speaking of occasional spiritual weakness in Christians but of the continual, willing, enjoyed, and ungodly drives of unbelievers. A believer could never be called an enemy of God.
Kosmos (world) does not refer to the physical earth or universe but rather to the spiritual reality of the man-centered, Satan-directed system of this present age, which is hostile to God and God’s people. It refers to the self-centered, godless value system and mores of fallen mankind. The goal of the world is self-glory, self-fulfillment, self-indulgence, self-satisfaction, and every other form of self-serving, all of which amounts to hostility toward God.
Therefore, James continues, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Boulomai (wishes) connotes more than just wanting a desire or wish to be fulfilled. It carries the stronger idea of choosing one thing over another. Similarly, kathistēmi (makes himself) means to appoint, make, or ordain, also indicating conscious intent. Whether he recognizes it in his own mind or not, a person who wishes to be a friend of the world system has chosen to make himself an enemy of God. In his heart, his desire for the world supersedes any supposed positive ideas he may have about God. He does not have a neutral relationship with God, as an impartial bystander or a distant admirer, but is in the fullest sense His enemy. And to be God’s enemy is to remain in spiritual darkness, daily grow more fit for eternal death, and have the sovereign King of the universe as your foe.
Anyone who does not belong to God belongs to the world, and everyone who belongs to the world does not and cannot belong to God. Friends of the world are controlled by the spirit of the world and have no part with the Spirit of God. On the other hand, Paul makes clear that believers “have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God” (1 Cor. 2:12).
Friendship with the world and friendship with God are mutually exclusive. “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?” Paul asks rhetorically (2 Cor. 6:14).
Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,” I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you.” (vv. 15–17)
Christians have a nature so utterly distinct from the lovers of the world, the followers of Satan, that they should never entertain any of the ways or hold any of the loyalties that characterize unbelievers.
Believers not only are to be separated from the world but dead to the world. Like Paul, they should say,” May it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). Contrary to Demas, who “loved this present world” and deserted Paul and the church (2 Tim. 4:10), we are to “deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:12).
For believers to pursue worldly things goes against the grain of their new nature, and they cannot be comfortable or satisfied until they renounce those things and return to their first love. It is because believers are susceptible to temporary worldliness that Paul warns,” Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2; cf. 1 Pet. 1:14–16), and,” Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2). Christians are “to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries” (1 Pet. 4:2–3).
On the other hand, when unbelievers outwardly identify themselves with Christ and His church but do not truly belong to Him, they eventually become uncomfortable. They are like “the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns,” who, as Jesus explains,” is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Matt. 13:22). As James makes so clear, they cannot produce the fruit, the good works, that are necessary proofs of saving faith (James 2:17–20). “Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?” he later asks. “Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Neither can salt water produce fresh” (3:11–12).
The Old Testament has much to say about the enemy of God. David testified,” Surely God will shatter the head of His enemies, the hairy crown of him who goes on in his guilty deeds” (Ps. 68:21), and Solomon declared,” Let the nomads of the desert bow before him, and his enemies lick the dust” (Ps. 72:9). Isaiah proclaimed,” The Lord will go forth like a warrior, He will arouse His zeal like a man of war. He will utter a shout, yes, He will raise a war cry. He will prevail against His enemies” (Isa. 42:13), and Nahum said,” A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; the Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies” (Nah. 1:2, cf. v. 8).
The New Testament also has much to say about the enemy of God. Luke reports that when Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark
had gone through the whole island [of Cyprus] as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician (for so his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, and said,” You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?” (Acts 13:6–10)
Elymas was a sorcerer, a medium who contacted demonic spirits under the guise of summoning up the dead. Under Satan’s influence he sought to undermine the faith of Sergius Paulus, and in doing so incurred that severe rebuke and condemnation by Paul. For all unbelievers,” it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31).
Reciting the blessings and benefits that come to believers because of their salvation and justification before God, Paul told believers in Rome,” For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10). Later in that letter he further explained,
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (8:6–9)
The enemy of God is fleshly and by definition devoid of the Holy Spirit (Jude 19).
Looking forward to the future resurrection of believers, when the Lord Jesus Christ takes His own fully to Himself, Paul writes,” But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet” (1 Cor. 15:23–25; cf. Heb. 1:13; 10:13; Nah. 1:2). Jesus will then reign during the Millennium, after which, in the final judgment, all of His remaining enemies, demonic and human, will be cast forever into the lake of fire and brimstone (Rev. 20:8–10).
It is doubtless true that most unbelievers do not consider themselves enemies of God. Many believe that, because they are not openly hostile to God, they actually are friendly toward Him. They may even acknowledge His existence and His goodness, truthfulness, and power. But pleasant, sentimental thoughts about a sovereign divine Being are far from a saving relationship to the true God.
Many unbelievers claim to be sincerely searching for God and simply have not found Him yet. But Paul, quoting David, puts a lie to that claim, saying,” There is none who seeks for God” (Rom. 3:11; cf. Ps. 14:2). Such people may well be searching for what they can get from God—His love, provision, security, hope, and other blessings—but they do not want God Himself. They want a god of their own making to do their own bidding, tolerate their sin, and take them to heaven anyway. They do not want His forgiveness, His righteousness, or His lordship and, consequently, do not really want Him.
Many unbelievers who claim to know God and belong to Christ are outwardly moral, helpful, and friendly. Like the rich young man who told Jesus he had kept all the commandments from his youth (Luke 18:21), they think they have lived basically good and acceptable lives. And for that very reason, they do not feel in need of salvation or of the perfect righteousness of Christ, with which God credits those who trust in His Son.
Some unbelievers who masquerade as Christians have considerable knowledge of the gospel and give it lip service. But, as cited earlier, Peter says of such people that “it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them” (2 Pet. 2:21).
Unbelievers may regularly participate in Christian worship services and other church activities. They may even feel bad about their sins, recognize their imperfection, and, like the governor Felix, have a certain concern about their standing before God, but they never desire to forsake their sin or confess Christ as Lord and Savior (Acts 24:25). Regardless of their outward appearance and profession, the “enemies of the cross of Christ” (Phil. 3:18) are all of the unredeemed, the unregenerate, those who oppose Jesus Christ, His gospel, and His church,” whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things” (Phil. 3:19).
Before salvation, all Christians were themselves “formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds” (Col. 1:21). But their salvation changed them from enemies of God into His friends. Scripture nowhere refers to believers as enemies of God. Earlier in this letter James clearly identified faith in God with the friendship of God, saying,” the Scripture was fulfilled which says, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, ‘ and he was called the friend of God” (James 2:23; cf. Gen. 15:6; 2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8).
Jesus said,” No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matt. 6:24; cf. Amos 3:3). You cannot, of course, serve God and any other master. Therefore, an enemy of God cannot possibly be a believer, even an unfaithful believer, who, despite his unfaithfulness, will eternally be God’s friend. As believers, we often stumble, doing those things we know we should not and not doing things we know we should. But like Paul, we hate the sins we commit and desire our lives to be pure and holy (see Rom. 7:15–25). Christians can certainly be drawn into the world and its ways, think worldly thoughts and do worldly things, but they can never be happy or content there.
Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? (4:5)
This verse is difficult to understand, and evangelical scholars do not all agree on its precise meaning. Although the New American Standard Bible begins the quotation with He jealously desires, the word He is not in the Greek text but is supplied by the translators. The capitalization of Spirit is also arbitrary, since the original Greek manuscripts did not capitalize words. In addition to that, there is no Scripture, Old or New Testament, that corresponds to “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us.” Whatever reference James is making to Scripture, he is speaking of its general teaching, not a specific passage. And if he were speaking to unbelievers—as he seems to be here—he is saying that the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us would not apply to them, because they would not be indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
One cannot be dogmatic, but, in context, it seems that the Authorized (King James) rendering is preferable: “The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy.” James would therefore be saying, in effect,” Don’t you know that you yourselves are living proof of the veracity of Scripture, which clearly teaches that the natural man has a spirit of envy?” That interpretation is clearly consistent with James’s emphasis in the larger passage.
It is also completely consistent with the teaching of the Old Testament. Beginning in the earliest parts of Genesis, we read of God’s saying to Cain,” Sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Gen. 4:7). A few chapters later we are told that “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5) and that “the Lord said to Himself, ‘I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth’” (8:21). Because Isaac “had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household, … the Philistines envied him” (26:14), and “when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or else I die’” (30:1). The writer of Proverbs declares that “the soul of the wicked desires evil; his neighbor finds no favor in his eyes” (21:10). Through Jeremiah the Lord assures us that “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9).
In whatever way the verse is interpreted, however, James seems to be saying that unbelievers, who are in a permanent state of spiritual conflict with God, not only are His enemies but also reflect that hostility by not trusting or obeying His Word. They refuse to acknowledge their natural enmity with and separation from the sovereign God. Again, regardless of what such a person may claim, it is impossible to hold Scripture in genuine high regard as God’s own Word and yet not trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. The Lord Himself says of such people,” You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:39–40).
PRIDE
But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says,” God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (4:6)
Despite the natural, unbelieving, worldly hearts of men, God nevertheless gives greater grace; but He does not give it to His proud and ungodly enemies.
Here James clearly quotes from the Old Testament, specifically Proverbs 3:34 from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament), as does Peter in 1 Peter 5:5, saying,” God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” In other words, if a person is consumed with worldly lusts, desires, ambitions, pride, and love, he has no claim on this greater grace.
Antitossomai (is opposed) was used as a military term depicting a full army ready for battle. God is in full battle array, as it were, against the proud, because pride is the basic sin from which all others issue. It is not always manifested in ways that other men can see, but it is never hidden from God’s eyes.
Proud translates the compound noun huperēphanos, composed of huper (above) and phainomai (to appear, or be manifest). The idea is that of disdainfully and arrogantly supposing oneself to be above others. The term is rendered “arrogant” in Romans 1:30 and 2 Timothy 3:2, and in both places is directly associated with boasting.
Of huperēphanos William Barclay writes,
This word literally means one who shows himself above other people. Even the Greeks hated this pride. Theophrastus described it as “a certain contempt for all other people.” Theophylact, the Christian writer, called it “the citadel and summit of all evils.” The real terror of this pride is that it is a thing of the heart. It certainly means haughtiness, but the man who suffers from it might well appear to be walking in downcast humility, while all the time there was in his heart a vast contempt for all his fellow-men. This pride shuts itself off from God for three reasons. (i) It does not know its own need.… It walks in proud self-sufficiency. (ii) It cherishes its own independence. It will be beholden to no man; it will not even be beholden to God…. (iii) It does not recognize its own sin. … A pride like that cannot receive help, because it does not know that it needs help, and, therefore, it cannot ask. It loves, not God, but itself. (The Letters of James and Peter [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960], 124; emphasis in original)
“There are six things which the Lord hates,” the writer of Proverbs says,” yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood” (Prov. 6:16–17). God ranks the proud with murderers, who are “an abomination to the Lord” (16:5; cf. v. 18).
The picture James gives here is of a proud, defiant sinner, setting himself up as his real god, not simply in self-centeredness but in self-worship. He is an enemy of the true God and has no part in His grace. Consequently, and finally, therefore, the worldly person’s conflict with God involves a forfeiture of divine forgiveness. God has no use for the proud, because they put themselves beyond His grace.
God does, however, give grace to the humble. He has always done so. Through Isaiah, He assured His ancient people Israel that “to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isa. 66:2). The first and foundational Beatitude is “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” that is, the humble,” for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3). Just as pride is the root of all sin, so humility is the root of all righteousness. It is only when the things of the world are no longer admired and sought, when self-concern is replaced with concern for God’s glory, that God’s Spirit can work His sovereign and gracious will in a heart, changing it from being an enemy to being a friend.
Emphasizing the same truth that James does in the present verse, Jesus said,” Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted” (Matt. 23:12). In the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the Lord praises the latter for “beating his breast [and] saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’” (Luke 18:13). “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other,” He continued, repeating the truth that “for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (v. 14).
True Christians are not part of the evil world system (John 17:14, 16), having been chosen out of it (John 15:19). Far from being conformed to the world (Rom. 12:2), they are sent into it by Jesus (John 17:18) to provide light in its moral and spiritual darkness (Matt. 5:14). They have been crucified to the world (Gal. 6:14), overcome it (1 John 5:4–5), and remain unstained by it (James 1:27). To be a friend of the world while claiming to be a Christian is the height of self-deceiving folly.