James 4:4-10
“Our blindness to materialism is similar to the western culture’s blindness to the sins of slavery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Today we look back in amazement that Christian people could not see it for what the evil it was. And likely, future generations, should they look back, will regard our day with the same perplexity: How could they not have seen it?” — John Stott
Since friendship with the world makes us an enemy of God, we must submit ourselves to God and his ways.
- We must resist friendship with the world.
“The picture is serious: the more we are conformed to the pattern of this world, living like this world and loving this world, the more we betray our God and cheat on him. The pain and heartache involved in adultery are wrapped up in this imagery.” — David Platt
“James gives us a simple equation: friendship with the world = enmity with God. In other words, the health of our relationship with God is quickly established by examining the desires in our hearts: are they godly, or worldly? Do we chase the things the world chases, or are our deepest desires for the things of God—his reputation, the good of his people, and service of others?” —Sam Allberry
“What comfort there is in this verse! It tells us that God is tirelessly on our side. He never falters in respect of our needs, he always has more grace at hand for us. He is never less than sufficient, he always has more and yet more to give. …His resources are never at an end, his patiences in never exhausted, his initiative never stops, his generosity knows no limit: he gives more grace.” — J. Alec Motyer, The Message of James
- We must pursue friendship with God.