James 4:4-6 TPT “You have become spiritual adulterers who are having an affair, an unholy relationship with the world. Don’t you know that flirting with the world’s values places you at odds with God? Whoever chooses to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy!
5 Does the Scripture mean nothing to you that says, “The Spirit that God breathed into our hearts is a jealous Lover who intensely desires to have more and more of us”?
6 But HE continues to pour out more and more grace upon us. For it says, “God resists you when you are proud but continually pours out grace when you are humble.”
Scripture says God resists the proud. Who are the proud? If grace is poured out more and more, then as a people of God, we should be getting a constant flow of healing, restoration, and prosperity. Deliverance and breakthroughs. But why are many struggling? Obviously, your own pride is the answer that blocks grace.
Our God is a very jealous God. HE had breathed into all of us His Spirit, whom HE is very jealous of. HE desires for us so much. But the problem is our focus or center is not Him. James is rebuking God’s people for being spiritual adulterers. What is a spiritual adulterer? They are God’s people who flirt with the values, customs, and culture of the world. The world or pagans seek to have sex on the first date. Dating to the world is about having sex rather than looking for a Christian marriage. The pagans are filled with envy and jealousy of one another. They compete for cars, clothes, and things. Pagans jump on the next big thing. They jump on fad or the next trend, which the world chases. The pagans despise most forms of authority. They are the center of their own world and their hope is in themselves. They do not understand full surrender or submission.
If you continue to live like the world, you flirt with the world’s customs and values. It is about motive. We cannot leave the world, and we need to do business with the world. If we continue to act, talk, and do as the world, as worldly people, we are then enemies of God, and grace becomes limited, and therefore, your problems continue like an addiction. The world is proud and doesn’t think it needs God. Our God will resist those who continue to act worldly.
So what is the difference between sons and daughters of God and the worldly people, or shall we say worldly Christian people as well? The sons and daughters of God do not need to chase for things because they already own everything by faith. It is just a matter of time, patience, and maturity to receive the inheritance. Worldly people, including many Christians, chase “things” just because someone else has it. If the pagans are having a one-night stand, will you do the same? Whose trend will you follow? One leads to more grace, while the other leads to the same old nonsense.
Pastor Steve Kim