#8: “Worldliness”
SCRIPTURE: James 4:1-12
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your
passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and
cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask
and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous
people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore,
whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you
suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he
has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, “God opposes the
proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil,
and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your
hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and
weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves
before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks 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. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he
who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
INTRO:
James deals with two important questions in these verses:
• What is worldliness?
• How does a Christian fight the Devil?
Verses 1 through 6 answer the question: