James, a little book of wisdom: living in the world as God’s people

Today’s wisdom:

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
but shows favour to the humble.”

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.  James 4:4-10

My random musings:

Am I the only one who can sense James’ total frustration and exasperation in these words? He’s not beating around the bush here, is he? Not in any way choosing his words carefully to avoid causing offence. No, he’s setting it out clearly in black and white: you’re either for God or against Him. There are no grey areas. There is no middle ground.

Being faithful to God is at the heart of this section. Living according to God’s will is how we show allegiance to Him. So if at any point, we decide to go it alone and do it our own way and allow the ways and thinking of the world to influence our decisions, then we are being unfaithful to the one true God.

God is passionate about each one of us. He yearns for us to be 100% for Him 24/7. That’s how He created humans to live in this world, in faithful relationship with Him. That’s why He burns with jealousy when we turn away from Him and stray away from His presence.

Some people have taken these warnings about being friends with the world as an indication that we should withdraw and stay away from ‘worldly’ people. They become suspicious of the world. They see the world and everyone in it as the enemy. I don’t agree with that. I don’t see Jesus living that way. He engaged fully with the world and with everyone He met. The world is God’s wonderful creation. Every human being has been created in the image of God. If we embrace kingdom values and kingdom thinking and love others as we love ourselves, wherever we go and whatever we do and whoever we meet, then we are staying true to the teaching we have received.

None of us manage to do that all of the time, do we? That’s where the humility comes in. We all get it wrong, every single day if you’re anything like me. The ‘world’ is so good at sucking us in, influencing our thinking, fulling our hearts and minds with false truths. We have to keep coming back to God time and time and time again, recognising when we have messed up and aligning ourselves again with His perfect will.

Come near to God. Practise living every moment of every day in His presence. The more time we spend in His presence, the more He will be able to transform our minds and hearts to be more in tune with His way of thinking and feeling and being.

My question for you:

In what area of your life do you feel you are most influenced by the world’s thinking?