“4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit He caused to live in us envies intensely?
6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.”
“There is a common worldly kind of ‘Christianity’ in this day, which many have—a cheap Christianity which offends nobody, and requires no sacrifice—which costs nothing, and is worth nothing.”
Those words were true in 1879 when JC Ryle wrote them and they are true today. “There is a common worldly kind of ‘Christianity’ in this day, which many have—a cheap Christianity which offends nobody, and requires no sacrifice—which costs nothing, and is worth nothing.”
The man who tries to walk a line between the world and the church will find that, in the end, all his weight is with the world. Such worldly Christianity will offend no one, but as Ryle said, it is worth nothing.
The man who lives for and by the acceptance of the world will find, in the end, that he has rejected God. The man who wants to keep Christ but inch as close as he can to the world will find himself trapped in the world and without Christ.
There are any number of churchgoing people who love the ways of the world as much as those who have never darkened the door of a sanctuary. There are any number of churchgoing people whose lives are indistinguishable from decent men and women of the world; their lives are, are in every way, identical other than the fact that the location app on their phones would show that they sit in a sanctuary on Sunday mornings. They are on very friendly terms with the world, and they assume they are on very friendly terms with God. They assume wrongly and James warns them so; he says, “Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” Those who love the world live like enemies of God.
It is very possible that God has summoned you here this evening to tell you that your behavior is the behavior of an enemy. He has done so, so that you might become friends. He isn’t telling you that you aren’t on friendly terms to tell you off. He is telling you that you aren’t on friendly terms so that you can be on friendly terms.
He is obviously interested in that. He sent His Son so that you could be on friendly terms, but it is very possible for a man to claim God’s Son and live like an enemy of God. It is very possible for a man to claim Christ and yet cheat him with the world.
Don’t cheat on God. He loves you with a jealous love and it must be returned. That is the claim of this sermon: God’s jealous love must be returned.
We see this in two points. First: adultery with the world. Second: returning to a properly jealous God. We see how friendship with the world is in fact adultery with the world in verses 4-6. We see how to return to a properly jealous God in verses 7-10.
First: adultery with the world. We must remember to whom James was writing. The apostle was writing to those who had lost a good deal for the sake of Jesus. Many of these church members were Jewish converts who were ostracized from their families for following Jesus. Some had lost out financially for following Jesus.
Now James calls them adulterous; “you adulterous people.” You can imagine the response of some. ‘How dare you? Look what we’ve given up for Jesus!’ ‘Talk about kicking somebody when they’re down.’ Why would James be so seemingly hard on people who have it so hard? The answer is that suffering is no excuse for sin. The answer is that having sacrificed for Jesus doesn’t prevent a man from having a love affair with the world.
These people clearly loved the world. They lived like the world because they loved the world. They lived by the wisdom of the world. They were fighting with one another. They were slandering one another. Their life together was filled with disorder and every evil practice because they were proud and dissatisfied. They loved the world and it showed because they dishonored those whom the world dishonored, and they honored those whom the world honored. Living like the world was and is a sign of love for the world.
This is the first time James has called anyone in this church ‘adulterous’. To this point he has referred to them as brothers and sisters. He has called them the twelve tribes scattered among the nations. He has made clear that they are the people of God and it is precisely for that reason that he can call them adulterous. You can only commit adultery if you have made a previous marriage commitment.
You see this in the Old Testament. The prophets used this metaphor of adultery regularly before the exile. They called the people adulterous because they were cheating on God with the world. They lived like the world. They loved what the world loved. They were worshipping what the world worshipped. Jeremiah said, “Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.” They cheated on the Lord with other gods. They wanted what the world wanted.
God gave Israel a living parable of this adultery in the book of Hosea. God told Hosea, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” Israel had cheated on God like Gomer cheated on Hosea. She cheated with men; Israel cheated with the gods of the world and with the ways of the world. Make no mistake, loving the world was and is adultery against God. “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?”
Now we’ve defined adultery with the world, but we need to define friendship with the world. “We speak rather casually of friends in our day,” explains Doug Moo, “but in the Hellenistic world friendship involved ‘sharing all things’ in a unity both spiritual and physical.”
I can happily say I am friends with a Muslim without sharing many of his beliefs. I can happily say that I am friends with a feminist without sharing many of her beliefs. I can say that because, in our day, the word ‘friend’ doesn’t imply being on the same page. It did in James’ day. That is the scandal behind the accusations that Jesus was a friend of tax collectors and prostitutes. They weren’t accusing him of being friendly towards them; they were accusing him of being on the same page as them.
These first century Christians could, of course, be as sociable and approachable with unbelievers as we try to be, but they wouldn’t call it ‘friendship’; the pagans they knew certainly would not consider their relationship with their Christian neighbors to be one of friendship. They didn’t consider each other friends because they weren’t on the same page.
James uses the word ‘friend’ differently from the way that we do, and we have to understand that to understand what he meant when he wrote, “anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
This church was living by the world’s playbook. They were on the same page as the world. They lived by the wisdom of the world. They were fighting with each other because they operated by the ways of the world. Yes, they had endured persecution for Jesus’ sake, but now they were trying to keep Jesus and live like the world.
This is endemic in our day. Many of the so-called dilemmas facing the church today are really nothing more than a futile attempt to be worldly enough to be inoffensive to the world and still be Christian enough to be the church of Jesus Christ. Such attempt are impossible and even if they are inoffensive to the world they are offensive to Christ who died for his church to be the church.
Such attempts to be as worldly as possible while still being the church aren’t unique to our day. Remember, it was in 1879 that Ryle wrote, “There is a common worldly kind of ‘Christianity’ in this day, which many have—a cheap Christianity which offends nobody, and requires no sacrifice—which costs nothing, and is worth nothing.”
Remember it was in the mid-first century that the brother of Jesus wrote, “Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” He wrote that because those men and women were trying to do what some men and women in our day are trying to do: they were trying to be Christians without following Christ.
It is a rather foolish idea. It is foolish, as any thought is foolish, because it disregards God. Do you imagine that God is pleased with your loyalty if you are only loyal insofar as it suits you? Do you imagine that God is pleased with anything less than total commitment? If so, you do not understand the jealousy of God. Look at verse 5, “Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit He caused to live in us envies intensely?”
James is saying that God is a jealous God, meaning that He wants you and all of you. He is rightly jealous the way a husband is rightly jealous. No husband would be pleased if his wife’s clear goal was to enjoy other men while remaining married to him. No husband would be pleased if his wife’s constant question was, ‘how loyal do I need to be to stay married?’
God is not pleased with a man whose constant question is, ‘how loyal to you must I be to be saved?’ “Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
You must understand that you will have trouble with one party. You will either have trouble with the world or you will have trouble with God. Some of us are pleasers and we don’t can’t stand trouble with anyone. If this is you, you must know that you will have trouble with either the world or with God. That is a choice you must make.
God is a jealous lover and any proper love affair with God is passionate. God described the relationship as such. He described Israel as a forsaken woman whom He nursed back to health. He said, “I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your naked body. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine… I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put sandals of fine leather on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck… you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric … You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect.”
God’s love was and is consuming. He is passionate and He expects faithfulness. This is why Paul told the Corinthians, “I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.”
Look how Christ has loved you. He has given his life for you. Does that seem like the behavior of a God who would be fine with anything less from you?
See loving the ways of the world for what it is. It is an act of adultery. Now maybe you don’t think that your acts of worldliness are that serious. There are certainly people who are more worldly than you. If that is your mindset, recognize that a wife kissing another man is not as serious as a wife spending the night with another man, but they are both serious and rightly enrage a loving husband.
God is a jealous lover. Many people assume that the world is passionate while God is rather reserved in His affections. The fact of the matter is that God’s love is overwhelming. If you understand the love of God, you will not wonder how loyal you must be, you will be too busy wondering how you can ever you live up to your end of such a love affair?
James answered that question in verse 6. He was thinking about the jealous love of God and how we can properly return it. He said that God “gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
If you think God should be happy with whatever love you offer Him, you are proud and you are acting in a manner unworthy of His jealous love. You are adulterous and you don’t even know it.
It seems that many people would be happy with a detached, apathetic relationship with God because such a relationship would place no obligation upon them. It is easy to please a lover who wants nothing. God is not that kind of lover. He gives Himself to You. Look at the extent of His love on the cross. He rightly expects you to give yourself to Him. To return anything less is adultery born out of pride and God opposes the proud.
However, as James says, He gives grace to the humble. He knows that, by nature and willpower, you can’t and won’t give yourself to Him. He knows what hopefully you know: your love is fickle and left to yourself will cheat on Him. If you know that about yourself, if you know that in yourself you are unworthy of God’s love and unable to properly return God’s love, then you are humble, and God gives grace to the humble.
He gives the grace you need to return His jealous love. That is verse 6. James has considered the jealous love God and how we spurn it and so he says, “But He gives us more grace.” This isn’t merely grace to forgive the ways you cheat on Him with the world. This is the grace necessary to change you so that you return His jealous love rather than spurn His jealous love.
Are you overwhelmed at the thought of returning the jealous love of God? Good, you are humble and so you will receive the grace necessary to do it. Doug Moo is right, “God’s grace is completely adequate to meet the requirements imposed on us by [His jealous love].”
God knows the obligations that His jealous love imposes upon us. He knows that His love requires all of you. He knows that you can’t return this love given the way you are and so He changes you. He gives you the grace necessary to love Him.
Has there ever been a love story like this one? The handsome king chooses to love a wretch of a woman for reasons that only he knows. He must daily pursue her because if he doesn’t, she will cheat on him rather quickly; he needs to keep winning her over; he does pursue her daily because he knows that his love what is what she needs most. The handsome king and the wretch of a woman – that is the story of God and us.
Now James reminded this church about the jealous love of God because they were cheating on God with the world. James wrote these words hoping that they would stop loving the way of the world and return to God. That is our second point: returning to the jealous love of God.
James had warned these people that by loving the world, they were making themselves enemies of God. Any belief that God would accept their fickle, half-hearted devotion was nothing more than pride on their part and so James quotes Proverbs 3:34, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
These men and women needed to humble themselves. Any man who loves the world needs to humble himself.
The man who recognizes that he has cheated on God with the world humbles himself by submitting himself to God. Verse 7, “Submit yourselves, then, to God.”
Any wife who is truly sorry for her adultery will put herself in her husband’s hands. She will say, ‘I am so sorry. Tell me how I can make it right.’ Any woman who is truly sorry for her adultery against God will put herself in God’s hands. She will say with David, “against You and You only have I sinned.” She will say, “tell me what to do and I will do it.”
If a wife who has committed adultery has no willingness to put herself in her husband’s hands, so to speak—as hard as that is—you can rightly question her repentance. If a woman who says she is sorry for her worldliness but has no willingness to put herself in God’s hands you can rightly question her repentance.
The man who recognizes that he has cheated on God with the world humbles himself by resisting temptation. Verse 7, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Any man who is truly sorry for his adultery against his wife will resist temptation. He will cut off all contact with the other woman. He will hate that sin. Any man who is truly sorry for his adultery against God will resist temptation. He will recognize that the ways of the world which he loved were snares of the devil designed to drag him to hell. He will cut off all contact with the world that proves tempting.
If a husband who has committed adultery shows no willingness to resist his mistress, you can rightly question his repentance. If a man who has committed adultery against God has no willingness to resist the devil, you can rightly question his repentance.
The man who recognizes that he has cheated on God with the world humbles himself by being cleansed. Verse 8, “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
Any wife who is truly sorry for her adultery will feel dirty about the affair. She will feel guilty. She will feel a desire to be cleansed. David prayed, “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” He prayed that because he felt dirty about what he had done. Any woman who is truly sorry for her adultery against God will feel dirty about what she has done. She will feel guilty. She will feel a desire to be cleansed.
She can find what she needs at the cross. “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood lost all their guilty stains.” If she finds no joy in the cross, you know that she doesn’t have a proper sense of her sin. Thomas Watson is right, “until sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.”
The man who recognizes that he has cheated on God with the world humbles himself with proper emotion. Verse 9, “Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.”
Any husband who is truly sorry for committing adultery against his wife will have appropriate sorrow. You won’t need to pry emotions out of such a man. He will cry. He will grieve. Any man who is truly sorry for his sin against God will have appropriate sorrow. If your repentance doesn’t involve your emotions, it isn’t repentance.
Now these four marks—submission to God, resisting the devil, desiring to be cleansed, and appropriate sorrow—are not a checklist. It is futile to force these marks. If you are sorry for adultery, you will bear these marks as organically as an apple tree bears apples.
If you are sorry for cheating on God with the world, you have His word that he will take you back. “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” “Come near to God and He will come near to you.” If you are sorry for your sin, that is a precious promise. You can again enjoy the jealous love of God and return that love.
If, however, all this talk of grieving over sin and mourning and wailing over being less than totally committed to God strikes you as extreme, if you think this talk of God’s jealous love is a bit overboard, if you think you can live like the world and know the love of God, you must recognize that JC Ryle was talking about your faith when he said, “There is a common worldly kind of ‘Christianity’ in this day, which many have—a cheap Christianity which offends nobody, and requires no sacrifice—which costs nothing, and is worth nothing.”
Don’t cheat on Christ. Offer yourself to him just like he offered himself for you. Amen.