Gospel Demonstrated | The Dangers of Worldliness

The Dangers of Worldliness

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WARM-UP

What is something you like to do because of one of your friends? Tell us about it.

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Is there a cause or project you would like to support? If you could, how would you like to support it?

WORD

Submit Yourselves to God

1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that battle within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you kill. You covet and cannot get, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4 You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever chooses to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says to no purpose: “He jealously desires the spirit which has caused to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says:

“God opposes the proud

but shows favor to the humble.”

7 Submit yourselves therefore 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 and mourn and wail. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. He who speaks evil of his brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting About Tomorrow

13 Listen now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, engage in business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? You are just a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to one who knows the good thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Warning to Rich Oppressors

1 Listen now, you rich, weep and wail for your miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your clothes have become moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded; and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your

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flesh like fire. You have stored up wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages of the workers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one; and he does not resist you. JAS 4:1-5:6

Often, we use “worldly” to describe when others speak and act in a non-religious manner. But James says worldliness starts in our hearts. It means we value ourselves, our possessions, and our accomplishments more than God. It means we do not focus on God and what He values. Here, James describes three dangers of worldliness that can prevent us from demonstrating the gospel.

1 Worldliness causes us to fight one another.

When we are friends of the world instead of friends of God, we focus on our current lives and possessions. When that happens, we often desire what others have—families, relationships, houses, and opportunities. As a result, we can become bitter or discontent, sometimes hurting and fighting others in the process. In Jas 2:23, Abraham was called the friend of God because he believed him. What does it mean to be a friend of God?

8 And it would be that when Moses went out [to go] to the tent, that all the people rose, and each one stood at the door of his tent and look after Moses [out of respect, and not sit down] until he had come to the tent.

Rashi’s Commentary

And it would be—Heb. וְהָיָה, an action continually going on.

When Moses went out from the camp in order to go to the

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tent, that all the people rose—They stood before him and did not sit down until he vanished from their sight (Hebrew: was hidden from them).

9 And it came to pass, as Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stay at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord spoke with Moses [hearing].

10 All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, and all the people stood and worshiped, each man in the entrance of his tent.

11 And the Lord would speak to Moses [hearing] face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And [after the Lord’s speaking] he would return to the camp [and teach the elders what he had learned. (Moses followed this practice from the Day of Atonement until the tent was erected.)] And his attendant, Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from within the tent. EXO 33:8-11

Are you not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham your friend forever? 2CH 20:7

Rashi’s Commentary

And gave it to the descendants of Abraham—Therefore, it is incumbent upon you to preserve it in their hands and to drive these peoples out. Even a flesh and blood king, and even an ordinary man, when he gives a present to his friend and someone comes to rob him of it, he exerts himself to preserve it in his hand. How much more so should you do so! Perhaps you will say, “I gave it to them only temporarily.” Therefore, it says, “forever.” You gave it to us for an eternal inheritance.

But you, Israel, are my servant,

Jacob, whom I have chosen,

the descendants of Abraham, who loved me, ISA 41:8

Rashi’s Commentary

And you, Israel, are my servant—Abraham, who was not descended from righteous men I did all this for him, and you, Israel, are my servant, who belong to me by dint of two forefathers.

The descendants of Abraham, who loved me—Who did not recognize me because of the admonition and the teaching of his fathers, but out of love.

13 Greater love has no one than this: than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not

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know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. JOH 15:13-15

Men and brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. ACT 1:16

And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God. JAS 2:23

2 Worldliness causes us to boast about tomorrow.

14 Yet you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? You are just a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. JAS 4:14-16

When we are excited for something, we share to others what we are excited about—a trip abroad, a promotion, school opportunities. That is not what James calls evil. Instead, he reminds us that our lives and accomplishments come from God, for he is the author of life and holds our tomorrow. When we take credit for the blessings God gives us, we become proud and arrogant. What does Jas 4:17 say about following our will rather than his?

5 You sweep them away like a flood [i.e., the “snatching away” of those thousand years of a man's life and condensing them to seventy (see verse 10)]; they are like a sleep [the seventy years of the Babylonian exile are like a sleep (viz. Psa 126:1)]—

in the morning they are like grass which [at the end of his “dream” one who is born at night] passes away:

Rashi’s Commentary

You sweep them away like a flood; they are like a sleep—Now you have seized those years and had them become a few days, which are merely like a sleep of slumber, for the years of the generations are seventy years, as is explained at the end of the chapter: “The days of our years are seventy years,” and they are regarded as one sleep. As the matter that is said (below 126:1) “When the Lord returns the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream.” This was stated regarding the Babylonian exile, which lasted seventy years.

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The days of our years [in our transgressions and in the sins of our youth] are seventy years,

and if with strength, eighty years;

yet their pride is but trouble and sorrow,

for they quickly pass, and we fly away. PSA 90:10

A song of ascents.

When the Lord returns the captivity of Zion [from the Babylonian exile],

[they shall say concerning all of their past afflictions:] we were like those who dream. PSA 126:1

6 [And if] in the morning it blossoms, it [immediately] passes away;

in the evening, it is cut off and dries up.

7 [And with all this,] we have been consumed by your anger

and terrified by your indignation. PSA 90:5-7

47 And that servant who knew his master’s will and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who did not know it, and committed things worthy of a flogging, will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from him to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more. LUK 12:47-48

Therefore, to one who knows the good thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. JAS 4:17

3 Worldliness causes us to mistreat others.

1 Listen now, you rich, weep and wail for your miseries that are coming upon you. . . . 4 Look! The wages of the workers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one; and he does not resist you. JAS 5:1, 4-6

Worldliness means we put ourselves before God and others. Sometimes we no longer notice when someone is in need. Sometimes we no longer treat others fairly. When God is not first in our lives, we lose our trust in him for the future. Because of this, we can end up mistreating others for own gain. What does Php 1:6 say about God’s work in and through us?

For I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. PHP 1:6

APPLICATION

Do you know what it means to be a friend of God rather than a friend of the world? Would you like to take the next step to a personal relationship with him?

Is God asking you to put him first in a specific area of your life? How can you deliberately do this starting this week?

Name one family member or friend you need to apologize to because of worldliness on your part. How can you turn it into an opportunity to demonstrate what it means to be a friend of God?

PRAYER

Thank God for his salvation and the relationship he wants to have with you. Pray that you will grow deeper in your relationship with him.

Ask God to clearly show you his love and affirm his promises to you. Pray that he will give you the grace to trust and obey his will.

Pray that God will open opportunities for you to demonstrate to a family member or friend what it means to be a friend of God.

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