James 4:4–10 (ESV) —
4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
NOTE: This is the problem of our age. We want to mix our beliefs with the faith of secular humanism, the worldview. It is wrong and it is evil and it needs to be avoided. We can't play on both sides of the fence.
"… spiritual adultery is synonymous with being an “enemy” of God. Instead of being faithfully wedded, James’s hearers had, by their evil ways, turned their back on God and were having an “affair” with the world." (Richardson)
We must stand for truth, God's truth, revealed from the beginning of time. Our difficulties with life, some are self-inflicted, are because we have tried to live according the philosophy of this world. We must repent of our sin and our love affair with the world. We must humbly return to God. We must resist the temptations of the evil one. We must wash ourselves in the blood of Christ. We should weep for how we have treated the God who did so much to save us out of this pit.
PONDER:
- How have I mixed the faith of secular humanism into God's truth, replacing the absolute with emptiness?
PRAYER: Father, show me where I have diverged from truth and accepted false truths. Bring me back in those areas to accept nothing but the truth of scripture.
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