You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

                                                                                                                       James 4:4 

An adulteress is someone who has been unfaithful in a marital relationship. This is the way that James is referring to his audience in today’s passage, but his reference here is not to people who have violated a marriage rather he is using the term to suggest that these people had been unfaithful to God. This is the dilemma that mankind has in his natural state. Our earthly nature is not conducive to pleasing or seeking after God rather our tendency is to think only of self and what we desire. This is, in part, to what James is referring as he writes the following words.

“Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?” This is the question that he poses for us to consider. We have to determine whether our loyalty is to God or to the world. It simply cannot be both. I believe this is to what Jesus was referring when He spoke about serving God as opposed to serving wealth:

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. 

                                                                                                                 Matthew 6:24 

We will either choose to make Christ a priority in our lives or we will not. Consider the words of John: 

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

                                                                                                                 1 John 2:15-17 

Also consider what Jesus said about how the world demonstrates this spiritual divide as they respond to those who follow Jesus: 

If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

                                                                                                                   John 15:18-19

So friendship with the world is hostility to God. The word “hostility” can be defined as enmity. And “enmity” can be defined as “the state of being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.” So as scripture points out, this embracing of the world and its ways is to actively place ourselves in the position of being hostile toward God.

It is not usually difficult to see in which “side of the fence” someone stands. Just begin talking about Jesus Christ and it will become apparent where the person is residing spiritually. If salvation, the study of God’s Word, prayer, fellowship with other believers, and using his/her spiritual gifts within the context of the church is not of any importance to the individual, that usually indicates that they have chosen the ways of the world and it is that system that guides their thinking and their life philosophy.

James summarizes by making this declaration:

“Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

There is simply no neutral ground. We will either find ourselves on the side of the world or on the side of God. When it comes to God, are you a friend or enemy?