NO FRENEMIES ALLOWED JAMES 4:1-4

Chapter 1: How spiritual maturity develops through response to suffering Chapter 2: How spiritual maturity is enhanced by response to the Word. Chapter 3: Spiritual maturity is evidenced by the use of the tongue and spiritual maturity comes with showing wisdom by how you live Chapter 4: Spiritual maturity is evidenced through cutting ties with the world and submitting to God and trusting Him with our lives

What is spiritual maturity? Spiritual maturity is the ongoing process of learning to live and act like Christ. Living and acting like Christ means to love what He loves and to hate what he hates. When you love what Christ loves and hate what Christ hates, you will do what Christ did.

“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 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. James 4:1-4 ESV

Frenemy: an enemy disguised as a friend.

*"I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present time has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church.”-Charles Spurgeon THE BOTTOM LINE: FRIENDSHIP WITH THE WORLD CREATES A HOSTILE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND GOD AND MAKES YOU AN ENEMY TO GOD.

James begins this chapter with the following verse: "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?"

Purity is first spiritual and internal before it becomes external.

Paul describes this conflict in Romans 7: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” Romans 7:18-20 ESV

Paul later discusses this internal struggle more in Romans 8: “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:5-8 ESV

What's the condition of your heart? What's going on inside of you right now? Where is your heart and what is coming out of it?...This will tell us if we are contaminated or not. "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Proverbs 4:23 ESV

SATAN WANTS AND DESIRES TO BRING MIXTURE INTO OUR LIVES BECAUSE MIXTURE BRINGS ABOUT THE FOLLOWING: 1. Issues with sexuality 2. Issues with our spirituality

This is dangerous and this is where James puts it down real hard in vs. 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.” James 4:4 ESV

James goes on to say in verse 4: "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.” James 4:4 ESV

In 1 John 2:15-17 it talks about not loving this world: *"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:15-17 ESV

Love for the world pushes out love for God, and love for God pushes out love for the world.

The question is this: Where have you placed your love? In the world or in God? THE BOTTOM LINE: FRIENDSHIP WITH THE WORLD CREATES A HOSTILE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND GOD AND MAKES YOU AN ENEMY TO GOD.

APPLICATION: How do we avoid this hostile relationship with God and not becoming enemies to God? Or How do we move away from being a frenemy? THE PRESENCE OF GOD “He must increase, but I must decrease.””John 3:30 ESV

NO FRENEMIES ALLOWED JAMES 4:1-4