Friendship with the World
September 7, 2010
Dear Friends,
If you asked me what were, in my opinion, the most misquoted and wrested Scriptures by brethren, in my “Top 10″ would certainly be James 4:4:
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
This oft quoted verse has done much damage by those who have interpreted the verse to mean that we should not have friends who are not in the household of faith. Many a young person has departed the body of believers because of this exclusive interpretation. It has also hampered preaching efforts because it is very hard to preach to people with whom you refuse to be friends. This interpretation has also caused all types of strange behavior with brethren who have created artificial and unnecessary behaviors – be it modes of dress or customs – simply to demonstrate the difference between themselves and the people in the world.
So what does James 4:4 mean? In Brother Mike LeDuke’s book The Epistle of James: A Faith that Works, which is the best book on James that I have read, he comments on this verse:
In James 2:23, a closely related word refers to Abraham as a “friend” of God. Jesus says, “ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.” Paul says in Romans 6, “you belong to whomever you obey.” If you obey God then you are the children of God and will be blessed with eternal life. However, even if you profess Christ but yet give yourself to the works of sin then to sin you belong and in the end you will be rewarded with death. These hypocrites of whom James writes were truly friends of the world. What does it mean to be a “friend of the world?” Paul has an extremely challenging statement in his epistle to the Romans, 14:23: “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” What would our lives be like if everything we said and did, our entertainment, our career choices, our friends, our activities, etc., proceeded from our faith? What if we governed our lives by asking the question John implies in 1 John 2:16: “Is what I am about to say or do ‘of the Father’ or is it ‘of the world?’ Does it have as its source the spirit of God or the lust of the flesh?”
The issue is not a matter of whom we call friends. Jesus was derided by the Pharisees for being a friend to sinners. We should be friendly with all men. The issue is not a matter of creating artificial differences between us and society at large. The real issue is are we following Christ is all the ways that really matter? Do we preach, teach and act like Jesus? Are we a friend of God or sin?
Here is why I think this matters so much. We have an obligation to preach the word and shine our light before men. If we look on our fellowman with disdain, we are setting ourselves up to be highly ineffective. The Apostle Paul said “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” (1 Cor. 9:22) What I believe Paul to be saying is that he would go as far as he could to make people comfortable with him and to develop friendships with him to win people to Christ. Our heavenly Father is “not willing that any should perish”, should we? (2 Peter 3:9)
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.(Ro 5:8)
Have a great week,
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