James 4 | A Warning Against Worldliness and Living with Eternal Purpose

What does James 4 mean by “friendship with the world”?

How can Christians draw near to God?

Why does James call life a “mist that vanishes”?

What does it mean that failing to do the right thing is sin?

How can believers resist the devil in daily life?

James 4 delivers one of the most pointed and challenging messages in the New Testament. In this chapter, James directly confronts believers with the reality that friendship with the world equals enmity with God. This bold declaration calls Christians to examine where their loyalties truly lie and to live lives set apart for Christ. Listeners are reminded that the tension they feel between worldly desires and spiritual devotion is not new—it has always been the battleground for the soul.

The chapter highlights how selfish passions fuel conflict and division among believers. Quarrels, envy, and slander break down Christian community and distract from the mission of God’s kingdom. James makes it clear that these behaviors are not minor issues but symptoms of hearts straying from God’s authority. This warning speaks just as loudly today, where division and gossip can easily derail the body of Christ from its true purpose.

At the heart of James 4 is a profound promise: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” This simple but powerful truth assures believers that intimacy with God is available to anyone willing to humble themselves, repent, and pursue Him wholeheartedly. Spiritual closeness isn’t accidental—it’s the result of intentional submission to God’s will, resisting the devil, and walking in obedience.

James also challenges the arrogance of planning life apart from God. Boasting about tomorrow is foolish, because life is a mist that quickly vanishes. Instead, believers are called to live with the constant awareness that God directs their days and that everything they do must be surrendered to His will. This perspective reshapes priorities, urging Christians to use their time for God’s purposes rather than wasting it on worldly pursuits.

Finally, James ends the chapter with a piercing truth: “Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” This verse moves beyond sins of commission to include sins of omission. The call is not just to avoid wrong but to actively do what is right. For modern believers, this means living as lights in a dark world, pursuing unity in the church, and boldly reflecting God’s love in every area of life.

 #FaithOverWorld #GodsPlanYourPart #BibleSt

Transcript

 James 4

James 4

[00:00:00] Hey everyone. Welcome to God's Plan, your part year two, where this year we're reading through and studying the entire New Testament one chapter at a time. Thanks again for joining us in discovering God's plan and your part in it. Hey everybody, welcome back to God's Plan, your part. Uh, it has been a minute, probably a year, probably almost a year.

And uh, we don't wanna mislead anybody, but we are gonna give our best shot at finishing out the New Testament. It's probably taken us. A year. Yeah. Yeah, a year to get to. From James three to James four. Uh, but we are gonna dive into James four. Um, I think just, just real quick, uh, Jenny and I just came off vacation.

We've been through a lot in the last year and, uh, I think while we were on our vacation, we said, Hey, what, what do we wanna do? To get serious about certain things in our life. We like to look at our core five, faith, family, friends, fitness and finances, I would say. And just, uh, what do we want to shameless plug?

How do we want to grow in those areas? And when it comes to faith, we, we just, we've said this before and I know that we've said this before and we've dropped [00:01:00] off and we've said it again, and then we've dropped off. So I feel bad about it. But, um, this podcast has been a pretty critical part of our own spiritual development, and we both feel mm-hmm.

Like a serious lacking. Um, I guess in our defense we do have, uh. Five whole kids now. And uh, there's just a lot going on. Uh, but we want to take our best stab and effort at keeping this going. Again, like we've always told you before, selfishly for ourselves, uh, to just be in a better ba bible habit. And, uh, we hope it's valuable to you as well.

And I think for me specifically, when I'm with the kids during the day, we do read parts of the Bible, but I have noticed for myself even. There is so much value in doing the podcast together, and hopefully that brings like value to you too as listeners because yes, we're reading it, but I think this time.

We dedicate to doing this podcast. Yeah, it helps us to stay more diligent and like actually disciplined to do it. Alright, so with a [00:02:00] year, a one year gap, uh, we jump from James three to James four James, and what a crazy jump it is. Let me just say, James again is very pointed. It's very direct. That's why I really resonate with James.

Uh, James is talking to a group of early believers. Most likely they are. Kind of new-ish believers. It's probably a mix of folks that have been doing it for a little bit, uh, and folks that are kind of new to it. Uh, there are a lot of struggles going on within this group of people. Some of it is external conflict, uh, that is like persecution, that's going on in culture, that is economic issues.

That is they, a lot of them live in poverty. Um, but there's also internal pressures where they're not getting along. They are speaking of evil. Each other. That's actually noted here in chapter four. And so James is just saying, Hey guys, get your stuff together. Get it straight here. Uh, this is how we live lives that honor God.

And if you wanna honor God, I think in chapter four, there's a lot of really pointed ways that we do that. And I think what a crazier time. Like I, I just feel like if you live in this world [00:03:00] today, you are not blind to just what feels to be like very spiritual war going on. Mm-hmm. I feel like there is a lot of evil going on in this world.

There's also a lot of light, there's a lot of like what God is doing in this world too. Like it's not. That's not absent either, right? But there's definitely a, a push and pull right now, and a lot of people are having to wrap their minds around like, where do I stand and what, what do I believe? What do I think and what am I doing about it?

And I think this chapter, ironically enough, this whole year. We decide to pick it up right now, uh, just feeling the own intention of, in our own lives of we need to get back into this. And we step right into James four, which is lit. I mean, it's, it is titled this in our Bibles, uh, this chapter says, warning Against Worldliness.

And to me that was just like, are you kidding me? Like this is what we're walking into right now. So it felt very timely and I think also encouraging for myself, and hopefully you all listening as you were, as you listen to today's scripture reading. It is [00:04:00] definitely pushing you to consider what goes on in the world and what goes on in your own lives to push you away from what God wants and really consider like, am I gonna fight against this, or am I just gonna go along with it and remove myself from God's presence?

Uh, I think you're mostly referring to probably verse four. Um, do you, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world isy with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. This is that super black and white nature of James. Um, I, I think some of my own thinking over the last year, I don't, sometimes I kind of go back and forth and ebb and flow and maybe you guys resonate with some of that, but.

Spirituality is fairly black and white. Like you are, you are either a friend of God or a friend of the world, right? And I think it can be tempting sometimes to try to walk in between those two lines. Stand in both. Um, I think even cultural Christianity or American Christianity can, can [00:05:00] tend to try to walk those different lines.

Um, but I think here James is giving us a really, really strong reminder. That you can't do both. You're either serving God or you're serving the world. And obviously we ourselves want to be servants of God and we wanna encourage you to be servants of God. And then I, I love, um, how James runs into, I think this is verse.

Um, nine or verse. I can't. Yeah. Verse verse eight, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts. You double mind to be wretched, mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

I used to use this a lot in youth ministry. And I would tell the students like, Hey, I've heard so many of you say, I wish God would speak to me. I wish I could hear from God. Yeah, I wish I could. Yeah. Like there, there's a pretty clear formula to this. It is draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

It's a promise from God in the work. Mm-hmm. If you feel distance from the Lord, it's most likely because you have [00:06:00] moved away from the Lord. I, I would say almost. A hundred percent universally true. If you feel like you can't hear from the Lord, it's probably because you have moved away from hearing from the Lord.

That's why retreats are always really powerful. That's why missions trips are always really powerful because you are purposely realigning your life to do something out of the ordinary that causes you to focus exclusively on Christ. And guess what? When you draw near to God, he draws near to you. That's not some secret.

Formula that's only available on, you know, retreats and missions trips. Like you can actually live that way all the time. And I think that's some of what even you and I, Jenny, have been feeling like, man, we need to spend some more time drawing near to God. 'cause I think we're. Drifting to some degree. Well, I think it's like a chain reaction too.

So we were talking about how obviously being in God's word is so helpful because it helps to ground you. It helps to bring you back to like this place of balance. Like, okay, this is God speaking to me. However, I think there's a part of it that even beyond that, if you start to lay that aside, if you start to lay aside [00:07:00] putting time into God's word, your decisions reflect that.

Also, things that seemed much more black and white start to get fuzzier. And like you lead by emotion or you make decisions with your emotions and that can also pull you away. I think James is talking about this over and over again. These are actual Christians fighting each other. Mm-hmm. They're talking about jealousy.

They're talking about, um, just like this hatred for one another. And it's just so backwards because even like you're saying, we want, we, we focus so heavily on that second part of the verse, we're. Well, of course God's gonna draw near to me. But at the same time, like, how's that gonna happen if you are not drawing yourself near to God?

And it, there's just such a spiral of things that chain reaction, like I was talking about. If you're not in the word, you're probably gonna start making stupid decisions. You start making stupid decisions. You're just distancing yourself from God over and over and over again. You find yourself in this place where it's like, oh, but God's not even around me.

Or I don't, I feel so distant from God. Well, I'm not surprised. I mean, I've had plenty of situations myself like that, where I'm like, oh goodness. Hey, God, sorry. Here I am. Uh, wanna [00:08:00] talk to me a little, you know what I mean? Like, I, he's always there for sure, but we can get ourselves in this downward spiral where those decisions stack up.

Alright, so anything else that stuck out to you from, uh, well actually, uh, anything else you wanted to cover in the chapter? In the chapter or in this first part because I feel like there's two sections here. Okay. The second one's a little bit more like, I don't know, I would say pretty pointed. Um, this first part really just stuck out to me with all these different, these different things that you can find yourselves in, whether it's quarreling about things like for Pete's sake, that is literally what I feel like we're living in constantly.

Like I feel like even with what you believe, we can even be in little camps of. Well, I don't believe this and I don't believe that. And just this back and forth, back and forth, and we're actually dividing ourselves even within like the same kind of mindset even. Well, okay, so I wanna dive into that because he, he says on verse 11, do not speak evil against one another.

Remember, this is written to Christians early believers, so he's not talking about. [00:09:00] You know, people who aren't believers, he's talking about like, this is in the house here. Um, do not speak evil against one another. Brothers. The one who speaks evil against another brother or judges. A brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law.

Okay, I wanna be clear about this. This is not talking about, um. If you see an issue with somebody correct. Falling correct, I was gonna say into sin, speak to that judgment. You can't say anything about it. That's not what this is talking about. Uh, there apparently was a very clear issue in this particular group of people that James is addressing, where they were just backbiting and cutting down each other, slander on purpose.

That's why it says speaking evil of So we're not talking Christian discernment. We're not talking Christian accountability. We're talking just straight up slander, um, I guess behind people's backs or to their faces or like gossip. Yeah. Which a hundred percent we can fall into. Yeah. Um, certainly that can happen in our churches and when it does it has to be confronted.

It has to be confronted. Mm-hmm. And very often we're afraid to confront it or we do like a bunch of weird, like behind the scenes [00:10:00] stuff where it's just like, you could literally just say, Hey, knock it off. Like do we need to work something out or not? Well, I think something is interesting. My, immediately I thought blessed are the peacemakers.

And oftentimes that gets like. Like a little bit like misconstrued, like no, actually peacemakers doesn't necessarily mean just like talk about it to your friends and hope that it just goes away, right? And not like, cause a stir peace also means to bring light to the darkness. If you see something that's outta whack, you don't just go and talk to your friend about it.

You talk to that person about it and bring whatever that thing typically sin. Is to light so that it's Yeah. Out in the open for everybody. Yeah. And so James is directly confronting, like the division that's happening within the church. You were talking a little bit earlier about I think, what could be called theological distinctions.

Mm. Um, there are times when we have different theological opinions. I think some of the, um. Some counsel on that, like there is right and wrong. Like there, there are right beliefs and wrong beliefs. Correct. Yeah. And I, I actually personally, if you push me against wall [00:11:00] and made me tell you the truth, I think would, I'm doing it.

I would tell you, like I, I think they're pretty clear distinctions. Like I, I do think you can study and learn and grow in your understanding of what is correct and I think that we are probably. Coming in a time where just being able to speak clearly about what is correct, what is true and what is true is very necessary.

Mm-hmm. When you're dealing with the outside world, when we're dealing with people who are not believers, they do need to know that they are sinners, that they are against God, and God desires a relationship with them, but they cannot enter into that relationship with God until they ask for the forgiveness of Christ.

Mm-hmm. And they are, um, they receive atonement, um, by the sacrifice of Christ. Um, at the same time. We can get these like really harsh debates going on within Christian circles. I'm not afraid of that. I don't think it's a bad thing. I think it causes us to sharpen each other, which is a good thing. Um, but we also are not supposed to be promoting just flat out division within our body.

Mm-hmm. Does that mean you can't call people out? No, that's not what that means. Um, does that mean [00:12:00] that, that at times, um, you need to actually stand up and say that's incorrect? Yeah. Yeah, I think you do. At times, I think we need to call out false teaching. I think a major part of the problem with faith in our culture today is false teaching.

We need to call it out. We need to deal with it. So I, I don't think you hide behind this, but at the same time, I don't think that you like purposely, you know, gossip and slander Christian Brothers and Spec sisters specific. I can't talk, um, specifically. And then I think James is trying to bring some peace here, um, particularly among these different groups of people.

So. In the second section of this, it, it's kind of, it, it kind of pivots. So we're talking about how we need to basically live a life worthy of honoring Christ. That's like that first section. Then we move into the second part. It's like a couple of verses basically talking about, um, well, I'll just read the first verse.

13, 13 says, come now you who say, today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and spend [00:13:00] a year there and make a profit. And yet we don't know what tomorrow will bring. Basically, I think it's saying to like live a life that is reliant on God. Live a life that's relying on God. You can't add, add day, anything to your life.

Yes. You can't change when your end of the end of your life will be. Let's be frank here, like that's something that's heavy on I think most people's minds. Yeah. Yeah. Because we just saw, uh, Charlie Kirk was shot and passed away and I think shocked everyone whether you knew him, um, and followed him, whether you didn't.

I think it's shocking to anyone to see somebody that's relatively living their life young, just living their life, doing their normal thing and. It's over. Um, so we don't know what life will bring and that's what James is highlighting here. Mm-hmm. Like, hey, you guys that are kind of arrogantly planning, you're gonna go to this city and that city and make money, uh, just.

Remember that God holds your life in his hand. So that's arrogance that he's confronting. It's not planning. [00:14:00] Mm-hmm. So, so we, we used to have debates in, uh, seminary. Um, does being led by the Holy Spirit mean that you don't do any planning? No. It means you trust the Holy Spirit to lead you in your planning.

So you don't become prideful and arrogant. You ask God for his direction and you follow him as he leads you. So it's, it's not fly by the seat of your pants, just shoot from the hip all the time. It's trust God and follow God. Mm-hmm. And you don't know what your life holds. I think something else I wanna add to that.

So I did say like this is a pivot and it definitely is, but I think they go together. So this, this section and the prior section of this chapter go together because it's pivoting from I, I think what you can say is. We're you waste your time living a life for the world. Yeah. You actually like waste your life doing that because one, it's not a reflection of what Christ wants for us.

But it also, it kind of just shows that you're just like comfortable. Yeah. Like you're not living a life that you know is in fear of God and. Knowing that hey, he's ultimately in control. Your life is like this small. Mm-hmm. I'm like making like a [00:15:00] centimeter size length here. Uh, it's, it's tiny and God knows what's gonna be happening in your life.

So why waste such valuable time, backbiting and, you know, slandering each other And I don't know, all these things that were talked about at the beginning of the chapter when verse 14 says, what is your life? You're a miss. That appears for a little time and then vanishes. It is, it's, it's God's will. To like, I guess, dictate the days that you have here.

Yeah. So use them wisely. Be a light to this world that is already in such deep darkness, and how do you get the most value out of your life? You live it to honor God. Mm-hmm. That's it. That's it. Like how do you squeeze everything you can outta your life? You use it to build God's kingdom. That's the message.

And then verse 17, I feel like just ties it so nicely together. Verse 17 says so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it. For him, it is a sin. So I think for Christians, that is like such an application for us. We are living in this world in a dark, dark [00:16:00] world as the light to it. And if we waste that time, just, you know, fighting each other about things that are so meaningless or just so stupid, quite frankly, we have such a awesome opportunity to share the best love story in the entire world.

And. Honestly, if we know that that's the right thing to do and we just waste our time doing all the other stuff, that's a sin. And I think that that, I don't know, it just gives us like a really good perspective moving forward, especially in a time like we're living in right now. I think my, my manliness was like, love story.

Ugh. But Jesus, my goodness, redemption story to me, it's a love story. That there's no deeper love than that. Oh man. Well, that's what we'll leave you with. There's no, no better, no better redemption story to pursue, uh, than that. Jesus, uh, loves you, gave his life for you, and forgiveness is available to him.

That is valuable to us as believers. And of course it's valuable to others who are not believers. So don't take these days for granted. Yeah, [00:17:00] use them. Use them and, uh, use your days to build God's kingdom. We'll be back again tomorrow looking at James chapter five. Uh, we'll see you then. Hey, guys, if you enjoyed the episode today and are enjoying God's plan, your part, we would love it if you could help us in two ways.

First, if you would give us a rating and review for our podcast, we would really appreciate that. And second, tell your friends, tell all your people that you rub shoulders with every day, uh, to listen to the podcast. And also give us ratings and reviews as well. That being said, here is the reading for today, James chapter four.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and you do not have. So you murder, you covet, and you cannot obtain. So you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask, and you 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 [00:18:00] be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God? Or do you suppose it is no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us.

But he gives us 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. Use sinners and purify your hearts. You double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. Do not speak evil against one another. Brothers, the one who speaks evil against a brother or judges. His brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law.

But a judge, there is only one law giver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? Come now [00:19:00] you who say, today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.

What is your life for you are am mist. That appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil, so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin.

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of God's Plan, your Part. Don't forget, you can find us on just about every social media platform and YouTube. Let us know what you thought of today's episode, and if you have any questions, go ahead and post them there. You can also reach out to us directly at God's Plan, your part@gmail.com.

As always. If you don't have a Bible or if you'd like to use the one that we use, uh, reach out to us via email and we'll be happy to send one to you. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you again [00:20:00] tomorrow.