By David ReayThursday 4 Sep 2014LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read James 4:4
You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world,you make yourself an enemy of God. (NLT)
When it comes to ‘the world’,the Bible seems to say different things. Famously,we are told God loves the world. Very early on we read that God made the world and called what he made ‘good’. We are also told not to withdraw from the world but to be positive witnesses in it and to it.
Then again,texts like this seem to make the world a dangerous place. Embrace it and you end up rejecting God. We are called upon to choose: ‘the world’ or God. We are told the world is passing away and that this world spurned Jesus and thus turned its back on God.
So what is it to be? Good ‘world’ or bad ‘world’? A bit of both actually. Our created world was made good,but human beings messed it up. So it is a good thing spoiled. And in our text,James is talking about the values of the world inasmuch as they are opposed to God. This doesn’t cause us to hate it,but to refrain from embracing its values and all its ways.
We dare not hate the world since God loves it and made it. We dare not unthinkingly love it either in that it displays hostility towards God. We dare not escape from it because we can’t then witness to it. We dare not immerse ourselves in it or we will be ensnared in its ungodly ways. We dare not despise creation and dare not worship it.
All this calls for a discerning,watchful,and prayerful love for it.
Blessings
David Reay