Today's Worship: Enemies: God and the world.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in James 4:4,

 

"You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."

 

Here is a bold statement. One of the many wonderful things I love about Scripture is that it speaks the truth without concern for "political correctness" or bruising the sensitivities of anyone. Scripture speaks truth in boldness and lets the pieces fall where they may. Here James informs, I note he doesn't suggest or imply or suppose, that if we want to get into sync with the world, move with what moves the world, pursue what the world pursues... in his words, "chooses to be a friend of the world", we become God's enemy.

 

I am reminded of the "flip side" of this. Jesus told his disciples, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." John 15:18-19. John tells us in 1 John 3:13, "Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you."

 

It is apparent to me that there is a choice here and the choice is to embrace the world which brings God as our enemy or embrace God which will brings the world's hatred of us. The world hates God. Psalm 2:1-3 asks a great question, "Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. 'Let us break their chains,' they say, 'and throw off their fetters.'" Thus, the world falls under God's judgment - becomes an enemy of God.

 

The world chafes and struggles with the reality that God is our omnipotent Creator and seeks to displace him in its rebellion against him. The psalm goes on to provide God's response to the futile fussing of the world, "The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, 'I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.'"

 

The reality is that God loves the world in spite of its hatred of him. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." John 3:16-17.

 

God loves the world. The world hates God. If we chose to be a friend of the world we join the righteous judgment it has earned and become God's enemy. If we choose God we become an enemy of the world. We have a choice: Whose friend to we want to be? Whose enemy do we want to be?

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com