Friendship with the World? Enmity with God

1 John 2:15 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If any one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

James 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Very often, churches in this day and age have difficulty lining up their practices, their teaching, and their worship with these verses. Certainly, these verses present a devastating blow to our natural desire for acceptance, comfort and a conflict free life. Too often we see churches look past verses like these, in an attempt to reach out to the lost. The movement is called the "Seeker Sensitive Movement", and while on the surface, the idea sounds great; this is a group trying to reach the lost, however when closely examined, what is being done, whether it is deliberate or not, is an undermining of scriptural authority. We are clearly warned of the importance of how we treat the scriptures. (cf. Matt 5:19)

In our short time together, we are going to look at a few passages that clearly teach the doctrine of separation, or the scriptural teaching, that a believer is clearly called for in both the Old and New Testaments to separate themselves from both sinfulness and worldliness.

First, lets look at our passages listed above:

1 John 2:15 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If any one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

This passage, in context with the book of 1 John, is a call to believers to come out from the bondage of worldliness and sin, and in reviewing the book of 1 John, you can see the intent of the book as summarized in 5:13 "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life." The fact is, that all throughout this wonderful book, John lays out black and white for us the difference between light and darkness, sin and righteousness, believer and unbeliever, and in this passage, as difficult as it can be for us from time to time, God Himself is telling us that we cannot have such a hold on this world, that we lose our focus on Him. If anything on earth is getting between you and God, then whatever, or who ever it is, needs to go.

Now, to apply this scripture to worship, and what is taking place in many churches. Church, above all things is to be about God. It is a group of believers, who come together with the intent to worship God; singing His praises, listening obediently to the Word, and fellowshipping with our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we look at the church described in scripture, that is exactly what is taking place. However, many churches today are trying to mass evangelize the lost, and in the process, they aren't feeding the sheep the Word of God that they need to grow. The truth is, that in a church service, the Word of God is to be preached uncompromised, the people of God are to worship Him unhindered, and the unbeliever who comes into the true church of Jesus Christ will be won not by dimmed lights, skits, handouts or emotional altar calls, but instead by the power of the Holy Spirit, working through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Evangelism is not the sole duty of the Pastor on Sunday, no, evangelism is the duty of the well fed believer, taking the Word back from church, and their own private studies to the rest of world around them.

I am in no way against, or trying to take away from bringing the lost into church, and witnessing the grace of God at work in their lives. I am in no way saying that people aren't saved frequently in church services. I am against however, the church service that is catered to the unbeliever, because it is not biblical. The church must let go of our desire to be well liked by the world, accepted and at peace with everyone around us. We must return to the principals of scripture that teach us, that following Christ means carrying a cross.

The next scripture takes this a step further, James shows us that our allegiance cannot lie both with God, and the world around us, but instead, when we hold the world and it's standards at an exalted place in our lives, we are literally making ourselves enemies of the most high God:

James 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

I have been in church services, where secular music was played to a questionable dance routine. Where Christian lyrics were overlaid on top of a secular (and very anti-God) heavy metal song, and where the Word of God, the precious Word of God, which is to be our very bread of life, was merely an afterthought to the guitar solos and flashing lights. The problem therein lies in our confidence in God's Word. Is the Gospel all that truly needs to be presented for salvation, or do we have to win the world over by incorporating their practices? Is the Gospel no longer sufficient to win the lost? Do we need to spice it up a bit to make it more palatable to the average onlooker?

The answer to these questions should be obvious, an emphatic "No". Nowhere in scripture do we see anyone being saved apart from the truth of the Gospel, and the grace of God. Nothing we can add to the Gospel can make it more valuable, more reliable or more desirable, because the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18). When we go out of our way to make the world comfortable in church, we end up stripping God of His glory, because we are placing our concerns and the concerns of others, above His. God doesn't share His glory with anyone, and our church services should do one thing, glorify God.

The last scripture I would like to look at will speak for itself:

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate," says the Lord. "and do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. And I will be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me," says the Lord Almighty"

This scripture makes it very clear as well, that our purpose is not to conform to the world or anything of the world. If we would purify ourselves, and turn our worship of God into a holy and pure offering, not to meet our felt needs, but to exalt God through our savior Jesus Christ, maybe then the world would take notice, not because we are becoming more and more like them, but because we become more and more like Christ, who the world still can't help but take notice of.

In His Service,
-Brian