Friendship with God vs. the World!
Part of James—A Series on Godly Wisdom
August 6, 2023

Friendship with God vs. the World!

Luke Davis
August 6, 2023


“All that we call human history — money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery — is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
– C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity


James 4:1-10 (NIV) What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 4You 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. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” 7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Why We Should Choose God and Not the World
1. The way of the world will not give us what we want.
2. Wherever you go, whatever you do, God is with you!
3. Even in our unfaithfulness, God is completely faithful.


Hosea 3:1 (NIV) The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”


Ask: Am I choosing friendship with the world or submission to the God who has been faithful to me?


Additional Notes: