Where is my friendship?

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Isn’t it because there is a whole army of evil desires within you? You want what you don’t have, so you kill to get it.  You long for what others have, and can’t afford it, so you start a fight to take it away from them. And yet the reason you don’t have what you want is that you don’t ask God for it. And even when you do ask you don’t get it because your whole aim is wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.  You are like an unfaithful wife who loves her husband’s enemies.  Don’t you realize that making friends with God’s enemies—the evil pleasures of this world—makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy the evil pleasure of the unsaved world, you cannot also be a friend of God. Or what do you think the Scripture means when it says that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, watches over us with tender jealousy? But he gives us more and more strength to stand against all such evil longings. As the Scripture says, God gives strength to the humble but sets himself against the proud and haughty. - James 4:1-6 (Living Bible)

James has in view professing Christians, outwardly associated with the church, but holding a deep affection for the world's system. Those with a deep affection and intimate longing for the things of the world give evidence that they are not redeemed. The necessary corollary to friendship with the world is hostility or enmity with God. The world refers not to the physical world created by God but the evil world system, the invisible spiritual system of evil dominated by Satan. - John MacArthur

Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love these things you show that you do not really love God; for all these worldly things, these evil desires—the craze for sex, the ambition to buy everything that appeals to you, and the pride that comes from wealth and importance—these are not from God.  They are from this evil world itself. - 1 John 2:15-16 (Living Bible)

Do my priorities look more like the culture around me or like Christ?

What occupies my thoughts most when my mind is free?

I am anxious for you with the deep concern of God himself—anxious that your love should be for Christ alone, just as a pure maiden saves her love for one man only, for the one who will be her husband.  But I am frightened, fearing that in some way you will be led away from your pure and simple devotion to our Lord, just as Eve was deceived by Satan in the Garden of Eden. - 2 Corinthians 11:2-3 (Living Bible)

Is there anything competing with my devotion to God?

Are there areas of my life where I am intentionally resisting God’s authority?

Following after the Holy Spirit leads to life and peace, but following after the old nature leads to death because the old sinful nature within us is against God.  It never did obey God’s laws and it never will.  That’s why those who are still under the control of their old sinful selves, bent on following their old evil desires, can never please God. Romans 8:6-8 (Living Bible)

Do I compromise truth to avoid criticism or rejection?

Do I rationalize behaviors that Scripture clearly warns against?

Since you became alive again, so to speak, when Christ arose from the dead, now set your sights on the rich treasures and joys of heaven where he sits beside God in the place of honor and power.  Let heaven fill your thoughts; don’t spend your time worrying about things down here.  You should have as little desire for this world as a dead person does.  Your real life is in heaven with Christ and God. - Colossians 3:1-3 (Living Bible)

If someone watched my life for a week, would they see clear evidence that Christ rules my heart?

Do my daily choices reflect that my citizenship is in heaven?

What specific area of my life needs to be more aligned with God’s kingdom?

Lord, reveal any love for the world that has taken root in my heart.
Help me walk in humble repentance and wholehearted devotion to You.

Be Encouraged to set your mind and affections on things above.




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