James 4:4

‘You adulteresses. Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore would be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.'

Thus they are also like adulteresses craving what will satisfy their thirst for pleasure. For adulteresses as a vivid metaphor see Matthew 12:39, and the vivid pictures in Ezekiel 16. They have turned from God Who gives to all men liberally, and are looking to the world for their pleasure. And they like what they see in the world, and so they concentrate their attention on it. The world is their friend, and they crave after it like a woman craves for a man and will do anything to get him, and they fail to realise that such things and such attitudes put them at loggerheads with God. For what the world is after is not what God is after. All that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the mind, and the search to be ‘someone', is not of the Father but is of the world (1 John 2:16). Thus each one who makes himself a friend of the world, and its aims and ambitions, also thereby makes himself an enemy of God. The point is that we cannot always choose the environment in which we find ourselves, but we can always choose what we will set our hearts on, and James makes clear that to choose the way that the world chooses is to take up a position of opposition towards God. There is no question of having both God and the world. We cannot serve both God and Mammon (Matthew 6:24).

‘You adulteresses.' The lack of ‘adulterers' (later introduced by copyists), confirms that this is mainly metaphorical, for James was no doubt familiar with Jesus' similar use of the term (Matthew 12:39). It goes along with the strong language about wars which was intended to cover all belligerence, and killing which was to include killing in the mind. Nevertheless Paul also gives the impression of ‘silly women' connected with the church who indulged their passions with wayward preachers (2 Timothy 3:6), and James may have known of such cases. However, we must certainly see his term as going wider than that, for this is a general letter. The change from the male to the female sinner is deliberate in order to bring out that not all the fault lies with the men. While the women may not ‘go to war' so much, they are equally likely to be ‘friends of worldliness'. But in the end both men and women are involved throughout.

‘A friend of the world.' This is in stark contrast with Abraham who was the friend of God (James 2:23). All must choose whom they will serve. Abraham had his eyes on God. These ‘adulteresses' have their eyes on the world. The question, therefore, for us is, Where are our eyes fixed?