You Adulterers and Adulteresses … who?
James made a comparison of earthly wisdom to wisdom that is from above (James 3:17). It is understandable that James spoke of a wisdom that is “from above” when he described how Christians should live. After all, believers are in the world but are not to be of the world. Yet his audience was characterized by envying and fighting brought on by lusts that warred in their members (James 4:1-2). This was hardly the product of wisdom from above. Driven by fleshly lusts even their very prayers were bent on self-consumption and naturally went unanswered (James 4:3).
What was wrong with these folks? After all they were believers in Christ, were they not? Yet they were characterized by infighting, selfishness and insatiable lusts. This is more a picture of 3-year-olds in a nursery fighting over toys and crackers. They had lost sight of their new life in Christ, forgotten that they had been purged from their old sins, as Peter puts it (2 Peter 1:9). James called them adulterers and adulteresses. They had given their love to this present world and abandoned their love for the Savior.
You see a man cannot love two masters. Likewise, you can’t long for a home in heaven while striving for the things of this present age. This is simply incompatible. Christ tells us in his word that as believers we are to set our affections on things above (Colossians 3:2). We are to look for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). Our citizenship is in heaven not on this earth (Philippians 3:20). Consequently, we are to live as strangers and pilgrims looking for the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Longing for heaven and the things of God is hard to do when what I’m really looking for is the next Black Friday sale. The key to pilgrim living is to love where I’m going. My love for Christ needs to be greater and stronger than my love for this world and for the things of this world. If my heart truly longs to be with him, I will have no difficulty looking for those things above. I will find it easier to separate myself from a love affair with the things of this earth. We must be content with Christ for he alone can satisfy.
James rightly used the words adulterers and adulteresses, words reserved for those who had violated their marriage covenant. This is what he calls Christians who love the world more than they love God. They forget it was the world that crucified Christ and nailed him to the cross. They forget that Christ has saved us from the world, and we belong to him. We are married to him; we are his bride. To love the world more than we love Christ is indeed to be an adulterer or an adulteress. How this must grieve the Lord Jesus Christ!
Friend, what are you living for? Or should I say who are you living for? Are you living for this present world, striving to have more and more of it? This world makes many promises but delivers on none of them. The things of this world can never satisfy, they can only entice you away from God.
James offers his audience the solution. He tells them to cast themselves upon the great grace of God. “Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts ye double-minded” (James 4:8). Good advice even for today.
Randy Livingston serves as a chaplain for a local police department. He writes devotionals for his ministry which also appear at his blog, From the Chaplain. We republish this post by permission.
Photo by jean wimmerlin on Unsplash
Praise God for this message! I have been thinking about where our 1st Love should be for a long time now…esp for American Believers who have been entertained to death & have abundance. The opposite are Christians in persecuted countries – they have no problem with loving the Lord with “All their hearts/minds”!!