Let's Get Something Straight

Duplicity and unfaithfulness are personal attributes that we don't warm to. And rightly so. Who wants to be associated with someone who's two-faced, who hides their intentions, who in the end will betray you? John F. Kennedy is remembered as one of America's great presidents. He married Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953. Yet despite publicly expressing great admiration and affection for her, often speaking warmly about her intelligence, her style, her importance in his life, he notoriously had affairs with Marilyn Monroe and a good many other women. Isn't it funny how history is prepared to overlook his duplicity and unfaithfulness? Plainly, you can't genuinely love your wife if you're off having affairs on the side. It's in that spirit that this verse is written: James 4:4 You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. (NIV) "The world" here refers to the things of this world – wealth, fame, pleasure, self, embracing our sinful desires. Plainly you can't genuinely love God if you're off living out those things on the side. But sadly, so many are prepared to overlook their own duplicity and unfaithfulness. As A.W. Tozer puts it, "A whole generation of Christians has come up believing that it's possible to 'accept' Christ without forsaking the world." You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. That's His Word. Fresh … for you … today.