Purify Your Mind Series (Part 3) by Joe KirbyNäide

Enemy of God

"Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." (James 4:4)

Imagine a friend is having a conversation with you, and the whole way through, he has spoken to you in loving terms, but then suddenly, out of the blue, he calls you an adulterer, a cheater! How would you react? You would be shocked to say the least, and yet that’s exactly what James has done in his letter here. From referring to the readers gently with the words “my brethren” (James 3:1) all the way through, he suddenly changes the tone and calls the readers as unfaithful wives and husbands.

Spiritual adultery is a very serious crime in the eyes of the Lord. If you love the world and bathe in its pleasures, James states you are an enemy of God.

If an invisible video camera followed us every minute of every day for a week, what would that camera reveal? Would it show that our priorities lie with Christ’s glory and His kingdom? Or would it capture us cuddling up to worldliness, perhaps even doing shameful things in secret?

In Ezekiel 14, we read of the elders of Israel committing spiritual adultery. To the onlookers, they looked holy and spiritual, but to the Lord, they were seen as hypocrites. So God told them to repent and turn from their idols (Ezek. 14:6). Is there an idol that has captured your heart recently? God is also calling you to repent today.