Who is your friend?

We don’t like to choose sides.  As I write, the BBC have got into a spot of bother whilst reporting on conflict between Israel and Hamas. The BBC have studiously refused to call Hamas a terror organisation because they see this as going against a duty of impartiality.  This begs the question though, “Can you be impartial on an issue like this?” Similarly, we saw Christians wrestling with a general desire for peace and whether they should take sides between Russia and Ukraine. The problem is that if you don’t take sides, if you refuse to condemn one side or the other then in effect, you do take sides.  We can never be neutral in the Christian life.  We are either with God and his people or we give tacit support to those oppose God and persecute his people.

A look at the text (Read James 4:4-6)

James continues the rhetoric, if in verse 2, he had accused believers of murder, here he accuses them of adultery. Here, it’s spiritual adultery, unfaithfulness to God. He says that friendship with this world, meaning human systems, structures and cultures means that we actively choose to be God’s enemies (4:4).

 If James’ readers don’t recognise this then they are ignoring what Scripture teaches.  The Holy Spirit is jealous for our loyalty.  We tend to think of jealousy as a negative thing and it is when driven by selfish control and desire but there is a right jealousy which seeks wholehearted loyalty where it should be given. For example, it is right for a wife to be jealous for her husband’s love and vice versa (4:5).

God’s solution is “more grace.”  What we need when we are in conflict with God is for him to show his underserved love and favour to us.  Note though how he does this.  James quotes Proverbs 3:34. God resists those who are proud and raises up the humble. This reflects James’ previous comments about the fate of rich and poor (4:6).

Digging Deeper

Two things should strike us here.  First, that the solution to our waywardness and rebellion is not more law but grace.  The New Testament solution is always the Gospel rather than legalism.  The second thing is the form that grace takes.  Grace is seen when God lifts us up in our humility when we are broken and low. He restores us.  However grace is also seen in the way that he opposes our pride, breaking us so that we are humbled.[1]

A look at ourselves

The temptation to compromise is strong, sometimes it comes out of a genuine motive to be welcoming and make the Gospel message attractive to unbelievers. We can find it hard then to know what is just culturally neutral and what is idolatrous.  Sometimes it comes from fear as we worry about opposition and persecution, as we fear losing friends. 

Of course when we think about it, we cannot keep those friends, we risk losing both their friendship and rejecting the friendship of God.  When we replace fear with trust in God, we discover that he is able to overcome and take us through opposition. We also learn that the Gospel is winsome in its own right and on its own terms. God does not need us to make the good news more attractive.