Going Old Testament on You

“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.” –James 4:4

Well, there’s nothing quite like coming right out and saying it. James has been very blunt so far in the letter, but nothing is quite like what he says here. You can call someone a lot of things, but you call them an adulterer, and you’ve probably crossed the line. So what was James thinking? Well, he was just going Old Testament on them. By going Old Testament, I mean that James was bringing up imagery that the prophets used in the Scriptures that would have immediately connected with his Jewish Christian audience.

Here’s the picture: in the Old Testament, the prophets often conveyed the image that God is a completely faithful husband, but yet his ‘bride’, Israel, is like a cheating wife. The best picture of this is in the book of Hosea, where Hosea himself is acting as this faithful husband towards his cheating wife, Gomer (I’m not making that up). At one point, he actually goes and buys her back from her pimp. The whole point is that this is the same thing God does when we continually sin against him.

James has already used the term ‘double minded’ in his book. Maybe the term could be ‘two timing.’ Here we read that when we have friendship with the world, or living as the world lives, we are really two timing God. I know it isn’t comfortable to think about it this way, but we must consider the serious nature of our sin against God. So, here’s a challenge for you: take a stab at rethinking how you view sin. Do you view it as something minor, or do you see it as something that dramatically affects your relationship with God. Over the next couple of days we will talk about some of the ways we should respond to the sin in our lives, but between now and then, would you be willing to consider the thought that when we are sinning against God, it is like committing adultery against him?