To Please God we are expected to be Un-Friending Worldliness:
The saints in Thyatira needed to stop their friendship with the world that led them to be displeasing to God. Revelation 2:19-20 (NKJV) “I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first. 20 Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.”
The Problem: The saints at Thyatira were tolerating pleasure-dominated lives. If you are only living for pleasure, and pleasure dominates your decisions, then you are feeding the lusts of your flesh. Our world is constantly bombarding us with the desire for a pleasure-dominated life.
Un-Friending Worldliness. James 4:4 “Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” Friendship with the world is anything that distracts us from worship, ministry, and devotion! Whatever is pulling us away from devotion to God causes us to be God’s enemy.
To Un-Friend Worldliness Submit to God. What does a lifestyle look like that “Un-Friends” worldliness? James says it comprises the ten conscious choices we looked at last week in James 4:7-10. Avoiding a pleasure-dominated lifestyle means avoiding anything that distracts us from worship, ministry, and devotion!
Whatever pulls us away from devotion to God causes us to be God’s enemy. Remember James said in v. 6a “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud’” (NKJV). The word “opposes,” or “resists,” is antitassetai, a military term meaning “to battle against.”
To be a friend of God is to seek His pleasures, His friendship, and His humility. These areas of our lives will be in line with God. (CLW-09)
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