What does it mean that friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4)?

We are speaking, of course, of the world-system. If it be a question of the people in the world, then we read, "God so loved the world." The world-system is the point here, and it is in a state of deadly hostility to God; so much so that friendship with the one entails enmity as regards the other. The language is very strong. Literally it would read, "Whoever therefore is minded to be the friend of the world is constituted enemy of God." It does not say that God is his enemy, but the breach is so complete on the world's side that friendship with it is only possible on the basis of enmity against God. Let us never forget that!

"Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God." James 4:4.

To the serious and thoughtful, the question comes up often and earnestly - What is the world? What is it from which we are to keep ourselves unspotted? There are three senses in which the word world can be used; literally, it means the order or system according to which human affairs are managed on the earth. The earth itself is called the world, because it is the platform on which the world-system operates, and the people who live according to this world-system are called the world also. They may thus be distinguished: the world-space, the world-people, the world-system. When we read that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, it may be understood that He came into the world-space, and in so doing He necessarily came in contact with the world-system which hated Him. He said to His disciples, "Ye are not of the world, even as I am not of the world," that is, you are not under the system governed by it, finding your life in it. He that is a friend to that system is an enemy to God, because it is self-governed, not subject to God. Take, for an illustration, the military system. When a man enlists in the army he finds everything provided for him: the paymaster's department supplies his funds, the quartermaster's department clothes him, the ordnance department arms and equips him. It is arranged for him that he shall go here, and lodge there; there are regular hours for drill, dress, parade, roll-call, etc., etc., and to this system he is bound when he enters the army. It is very significantly called a little world in itself, so complete and systematic are its arrangements. This is but a faint illustration of the all-governing system called the world, where every want of man is provided for - every faculty brought into exercise.

Dependence on God was forgotten; will acted for itself; they did not ask of God, or if they asked, it was but with the desire to make God Himself the servant of their pleasures. God does not respond to such prayers. Sad state of man! God was forgotten, and still worse, the heart was the slave of pleasure, and under the yoke of its passions, far from peace and quietness: war within, and open sin without, afar from God in the world - this passing scene in which such desires find their sphere - or, at least, if God was known, He was forgotten by their rebellious hearts. Therefore the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Such a Christian, conformed to the world, forgets that he is purged from his old sins. He walks in forgetfulness of God, in the path of the unbeliever, and conscience retreats driven back by lust. When he asks of God he does not receive, because he asks, as a worldling might, to spend it on his pleasures.

The apostle flames out here as contemplating, evidently, those who are pledged to God, but who are not abiding in the satisfaction yielded by that which is their own. "Adulteresses: know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" He is contemplating those espoused to Christ, and yet giving themselves to another; and, alas, how easy it is to forget that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Does not that seem often a little strong, perhaps? There it must remain as the immutable Word of inspiration, and let us face it fully. The world and God are on opposite sides, and can never be brought together. We may choose with which we will be; with both we cannot really be. "Whosoever, therefore, is minded to be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God." How well would it be if we let such strong yet wholesome admonition search us to the very bottom! How well the question comes just here, "Think ye that the Scripture speaketh in vain?" How often it seems in vain even for the children of God themselves! But "the Spirit, then, who has taken His abode in us, does He desire enviously?" This certainly seems to be the force of what is here, and it must therefore be a question, not an affirmation, as the common version makes it. "The Spirit who hath taken His abode in us" cannot mean the mere human spirit, and therefore envious desire can only be intended to be put in contrast with that which is His mind, a contradiction to Himself, which is emphasized by giving it the form of a question, as we must. We know, surely, that the Spirit of God that dwelleth in us can have nothing to do with the envious desires of the heart which go out after the world for satisfaction. Nay, "He giveth more grace." What do we need, but to realize what this grace of God is, and what it has made our own, to have every unsatisfied lust stilled; and instead of grasping for ourselves, we acquire the lowliness that waits upon God, and to which He can minister. "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble."

120 But the new man born of God, partaking of the divine nature, cannot find its delight in the world; it shuns that which would separate it from God. Where the flesh finds its happiness and its pleasures, the spiritual life finds none. James speaks of actual corruption; but he does not speak as though one part of the world were corrupt and another pure; on the contrary, it is defiled and corrupt in its principles, and in every way. He who is conformed to it is corrupt in his walk. The friendship of the world is enmity against God. Whoever will be the friend of the world is the enemy of God. We must keep ourselves pure from the world itself. We have, indeed, to pass through it, and to be in passing through it the epistle of Christ, undefiled by the world which surrounds us, as Christ was undefiled, in the midst of a world that would not receive Him.

Now a principle of great importance is found in this passage, "The friendship of the world is enmity with God; whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." Powerful testimony! which judges the walk and searches the heart. The world's true character has now been manifested, because it has rejected and crucified the Son of God. Man has been already tried without law, and under law, but after he had shewn himself to be wholly evil without law, and had broken the law when he had received it, then God Himself came in grace; He became man in order to bring the love of God home to the heart of man, having taken human nature. It was the final test of man's heart. He came not to impute sin to them, but to reconcile the world to Himself. But the world would not receive Him; and it has shewn that it is under the power of Satan and of darkness. It has seen and hated both Him and His Father.

(V. 4). The lust of the flesh leads the Apostle to warn us against the friendship of the world, which offers every opportunity to gratify lust. The world is marked by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. It has manifested its enmity to God by rejecting and crucifying the Son of God. For one professing faith in the Lord Jesus to enter into friendship with the world that has crucified the Son of God is to commit spiritual adultery. “The friendship of the world is enmity with God.” Our attitude towards the world plainly declares our attitude towards God. “She that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives”, states the Apostle Paul (1 Tim. 5:6). Habits of worldly self-indulgence bring death between the soul and God. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”, writes the Apostle John (1 John 2:15). “Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God”, says the Apostle James.

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of live, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."

Let us closely observe that even when the young man has learned to withstand, and to gain such decisive victory over the enemy, he still requires the solemn admonition of verses 15 to 17. One strong enough to overcome Satan may - alas! - find himself overcome by the attractions of the world. Indeed, he may feel that his own strength is such that he may indulge in measure in worldly practice without being badly influenced by it.

Sad delusion! For the very indulgence only shows the painful decay of his strength: he is already influenced. The world is a system not to be loved, for it is set up in both independence of God and in opposition to His authority. In any absolute sense, only an unbeliever loves the world: the love of the Father is not in such an one. The new nature loves what is of God: how can there be at the same time a love for what rejects God's authority?

'World' is used in various different ways in the New Testament. It is not a reference here to the persons who comprise the world -'for God so loved the world.' It is rather an organised system of things with an origin, motivating principle, and destiny in complete opposition to the love of the Father. In principle it began with the fall of man and was epitomised by Cain. He went out from the presence of God, took a wife, had a family, built a city, became the progenitor of urban life, of entertainment, commerce and industry. It is not these things in themselves that constitute the world, but it is the systematised way in which they support and sustain life, and absorb energy and attention, in absolute separation from and without reference to God.

The world in this character is opposed to God; it is like a stronghold that harbours rebels against their rightful sovereign, and all who are on good terms with it are against God, for we read: "The friendship of the world is enmity with God; whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4). It appeals to the lusts within men, and is summed up for us in the verse: "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1 John 2:16). It is evident that it has nothing in common with God. Whether it is cultured or debased, religious or profane, it is His great rival, holding, by its magnetic power, the hearts of men which ought to be yielded up to God.