Friendship with the World
There's a passage in James 4 that gets a lot of attention in conservative Christian circles:
Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4.4)
Taken out of context the passage is often used to make the argument that we shouldn't associate with worldly, sinful people. Or indulge in worldly, sinful pleasures. To be sure, those exhortations could be made using other texts in the Bible, but this is not what James 4 is talking about.
James 4 isn't talking about associating with people outside of the church or dabbling in worldly pleasures. James 4 is about the church fighting with itself. According to James 4, "friendship with the world" is strife and conflict within the Body of Christ. The question that kicks off the whole passage in James 4 is this question:
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? (James 4.1)
And the exhortation that comes right after the "friendship with the world" passage is this:
Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. (James 4.11)
It's clear from the context that "friendship with the world" isn't about personal associations with non-Christians. "Friendship with the world" is, rather, friendship with a selfish, combative, domineering attitude and posture within oneself. "Friendship with the world" is friendship with, in the words of James 3, the demonic, worldly wisdom that "comes from below":
But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. (James 3.14-16)
Note the symptoms of the demonic: bitter envy, selfish ambition, and boasting. That is what being an "enemy of God" looks like. By contrast, the wisdom of heaven traffics in peace:
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace. (James 3.17-18)
This is what purity and holiness look like: peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, without a trace of partiality. Sowing and making peace.
Again, the context makes it all very clear. "Friendship with the world" in James has nothing to do with associations with worldly people or indulging in worldly pleasures. "Friendship with the world" is the envy, selfishness, and ambition that create quarreling and fighting. It's this attitude toward others, this failure to sow peace, that makes a person an enemy of God.
The misinterpretation of James 4 certainly has contributed to the arrogance I was raised in, and the destruction of young people to not have goals and reach their potential in careers and hobbies outside of the church, and even isolates those in the church from being open to other opinions.. at least where I was raised. Definitely it contributes to the ideas proposed in the Dominionism movement and what we are seeing today with the religious nationalistic movement. Thank you for clearing that up, but I fear that it won't make a dent in those churches that need to hear.
James’s admonishment is pretty harsh though and in verse 4 he calls them “moichalides” [Adulterers] possibly the feminine plural (?) Reading between the lines, one wonders what’s been going on with those “12 tribes of the dispersion” whom it is addressed to. Young's Literal Translation however has both the feminine and the masculine mentioned. An external deflection of this message onto others ‘outside of the fold’ can often tie into a ‘Purity Cultural’ nonsensicalness, i.e. – no intimate relationships with non-believers who think differently than you, or we can’t eat or shop at that place, or we can’t do business with those “non-believers”. An exclusivity hermeneutic that then becomes a rallying call for demonization.