God's Enmity

James 4:4-10

When I read this passage, I asked what the world is and what I love that I shouldn’t. Is it talking about the self-indulgent pleasures I acknowledged in the last passage? Or at least the ones that aren’t good for me? Food, books, TV, relationships . . . I can see the world in a lot of my life and I need to work to remove it. But I think this passage is about something deeper.

God’s enemy is the world. God is jealous when I’m friends with the world because that makes me an adulterer and His enemy.

Adultery: As a member of the Church, I am Jesus’ bride. He rightly expects my complete love. I should not love anything or anyone other than Him. In fact, He’s jealous when I love the world.

Enmity: The world is characterized by pride. Pride was the devil’s sin – he wanted to be like God. The world is his, so when I love the world, I am participating in his sin of pride. Pride is thinking more highly of myself than I deserve. It is putting myself in a position where I don’t belong; putting myself in God’s place.

The only other option is to humble myself before God, by the grace He gives me. When I resist the devil and the sin of pride, he will flee and I will be able to humbly approach God. Then God will come close to me.

This is a very serious matter. It’s the battle for my soul and I need to understand how important it is to God. My pride, my love of the world, is so serious that it fills God with envy and makes me His enemy. That should give me sorrow and deep grief. The scariest thing that could happen to me is for God to oppose me. That would cause eternal grief.

“Lord, help me to see my pride in all its ugly manifestations today. Give me the grace to humble myself before you and weep over my sin. Teach me to hate the world and to give all my love to You. In the name of Jesus who gave His life for me, even when I was full of pride, Amen.”