Gen 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
Gen 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her
Going to anywhere but Scripture for wisdom is folly. This was Eve's problem. She sat there and pondered how "good" the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil would be (good according to whom? Satan, not God), even though God PROHIBITED it as a SOURCE FOR FOOD. Why do people continue in her sin?
2Co 11:3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
Jas 4:4 You adulterous people! 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. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"?
Gil Rugh states:
Friendship with the world:
James shows the seriousness of these believers' selfish, pleasure-oriented lives by identifying them as adulteresses. With their Jewish background they would have quickly understood the significance of what James was writing.
do you not know - The problem is not a lack of knowledge but a failure to live according to the knowledge they have.
friendship with the world - They have entered into a relationship with the world that makes them unfaithful to God.
friendship (philos) - This is the word for "love," and means beloved, dear, loving, kindly disposed, devoted, and then is used for friend. These believers have developed a relationship of love and affection with the world.
world (kosnos) - "World" stands for the world-system in its alienation and hostility to God (cf. 1 John 2:15-17; 5:19).
hostility (echthra) - This person has set himself in opposition to God (cf. Rom. 8:5-8 [esp. v. 7]).
The person who chooses to enter into a relationship of love and affection with the world makes himself an enemy of God.
The context makes clear what is involved in worldliness or being a friend of the world. The basic issue is a life that centers on self. A selfish determination to satisfy my desires and cravings, to have things my way, identifies me as a friend of the world.
We should note that this involves a deliberate choice (wishes to be) to become involved with the world. A person decides that, rather than submit himself to God and His Word, he is going to do what he wants; he is going to have it his way.
In the next two verses James demonstrates the validity of what he has just said.
4:5- James now challenges his readers concerning their attitude toward the Scriptures.
to no purpose (kenos) - Do the Scriptures mean what they say, or are they empty and hollow?
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