Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it, so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it, so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you suppose that the scripture speaks to no purpose? Does the spirit that God caused to dwell in us desire envy? But God gives all the more grace; therefore it says,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Worldliness has been a common theme in many churches and denominations. Often it’s had to do with dress, especially with the idea of women dressing modestly, not what the idea meant in Biblical times: avoiding dressing extravagantly to flaunt one’s riches, but in recent times rather covering themselves up well. In my lifetime movie going, dancing, drinking alcohol and similar things were cast into the mold of what was taught to be worldly. I remember there was once a book entitled The Worldly Evangelicals, which, if I’m not mistaken as I remember what was written about it would have been mostly related to this kind of understanding of worldliness, emphasizing practices often considered sinful in churches, though I haven’t read the book myself.
In James we see that “friendship with the world” which is said to be “enmity with God” has to do with people’s value system. The people James is writing to were not getting along. At the heart of that seems to be covetousness. Yes, it was no different in that day than it is today. It may take on different forms, but the heart of the matter is the same.
The harm of this to churches is probably not as evident now, since we live in a society and culture which accentuates individual liberty. Community is downplayed, optional, virtually nonexistent. Back then there was more of a sense of community, of communal interdependence. There was likely something of a class or wealth comparison going on. The community was in danger of fracturing over envy and disparity. And the rich and the poor along with everyone else were evidently caught up in the worldly mindset of valuing material wealth and status and comparing themselves with each other. James called them, and calls us to something better, something good, possible in God’s grace to all who humble themselves, acknowledging their wrong.
James tells them that their pursuit is empty and sinful. That this is why they don’t pray, and what prayers they might pray remain unanswered. What’s needed is a rejection of the world’s value system, and an adoption of a totally new way of looking at life. James calls for out and out repentance, for them to pull out the stops in doing that. That God in God’s grace is willing to meet them there and help them to reject the friendship of the world in the world’s ways. And to begin to live into something much better. All of this meant to be lived out not just as individuals, but in community.
Jesus community 