James 4 4:10

James 4 4:10

Spiritual Infidelity

How do we go about addressing this problem?

James 4:4 James is telling these people they are acting like they hate god and they are being ‘adulterous people’. James says these people have been unfaithful to God just like a married one has been unfaithful to their spouse. This idea of using marriage as an illustration is shown throughout the whole bible. God wants a personal relationship with us. What does this mean? It tells us that our relationship with God is supposed to be one of loving choice. God does not force us to love him. It is the same way we would select a spouse and the same way we would select a lifelong partner. God desires that relationship with us, but we CHOOSE if we want the relationship or not. It also shows that our relationship with God is supposed to be intimate and in the context of a commitment. Just like a marriage where you are involved with that person in your everyday life. That is what God wants, to be involved with every aspect of your life. This is a lasting commitment. When we are unfaithful to God Spiritually it damages our relationship with God, just as if we damaged a relationship with a spouse by being unfaithful. Our relationship with God can be something we have to manage and may be keeping us from what we ‘really’ want to do, but God wants a REAL relationship with us and for us to be changed by his love. When we invest our affections elsewhere we end up having an awful relationship with God. James is saying in this verse that we are abandoning our relationship with God to have a ‘friendship with the world’. We tend to think that God can’t ‘pay our bills’ or ‘take our pain away’ so we run to other lovers (worldly things). We are committing spiritual adultery when we say that our lives are about our careers, money, etc.

Reference Verses:

2 Corinthians 11

Hosea 2:19 God is saying this is the relationship that he wants to have with his people.

Ezekiel 16:8 God using intimacy when he says what kind of relationship he wants with his people.

James 4:5 God has put his spirit in us. When we say that our love is meant elsewhere, from God, we make the spirit inside of us become envious. If a husband finds out his wife is messing around with another guy and the guy just says “Whatever” it shows that he really didn’t care about the relationship to begin with. Jealousy isn’t wrong as the previous sentence says. Usually it is the little decisions we make along the way that lead us astray from God. See QUESTIONS below.

Reference Verses:

Jeremiah 3:20 Our putting our love into material things puts pain inside of God. It hurts him to see us put our affections elsewhere(besides him). We convince ourselves that the Kosmos(see definition below) has everything we need.

James 4:6-10 The first thing we should do is remember who God is. James sometimes gets a bad rep for being outwardly focused. James always talks about wanting to follow God and remembering who God is. James says to stop letting our tongues get out of control and to stop letting ourselves get out of hand. Again, take a second and remember who God is. God is not the one who abandons us. WE LEAVE HIM. Although when we move towards God, he will move towards us just as quickly. We need to choose God over the Kosmos (see kosmos definition below). James says to mourn, grieve and wail when we walk away from God and then come back to him. This sounds a lot like what we would be doing if we were married and disobeyed, were unfaithful with, our spouse. When and if, that spouse decides to apologize they need to come out and tell the truth and be sorry, or repent. We need to stop making excuses for the things that happen to us and the things we go through. If we make excuses of how wrong our mentality and faithfulness has been, then we will never move forward spiritually. God opposes the proud but receives the humble. If we are willing to go before God with honesty and humility we will be accepted by God.

Adulterous- promising yourself to another(truth and faithfulness) then going behind their back and giving that promise to someone else etc.<--- Referring to marriage

Kosmos- means a system. Not referring to people whom populate the earth or anything of it. Protecting ourselves from the ‘people of the world’ is not what James 4:4 means. It means to consume our time in worldly things such as money, etc. Sensuality, ungodly pleasure, sex, money, fame, etc are some things we waste our love on. This controls our contentment. We look at what other people have and we want it for us. Materialism, Wanting people, Boastful pride, are also things we waste our love on. We as humans base what we want and who we are around what we WANT. How can I make myself look good? Feel good? People think that when they have all these worldly things they will be TRULY fulfilled.

Reference verses to Kosmos:

1 John 2:15-17

Questions:

What would be some signs that we would be giving into the world system?

-Lack of faith

-Distraction with things that SEEM ‘better’

-Unwillingness to admit fault, autonomy, us not being in touch with our own problems

-Looking at what your anxieties are. If we think that if we don’t get a job or lose a boyfriend or girlfriend is going to ruin our lives… then we need to re think what we actually care about and focus more on God

-When there was an absence of spiritual goals in our lives

-Being double minded

-If our effectiveness on the spiritual side dwindles

-Look at where you spend your time and thought life

-If you think that there is no way you will ever give into the ‘world system’. We trick ourselves

-Look at what you get excited about and what things annoy you. If you get excited about spreading the word of Jesus and the gospel. If people are the direct thing that annoy you.

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Spiritual Infidelity:

Should we try to remove ourselves from the world? No, this is not what we our supposed to do(see below).

The goal is to remove the worldly system from our lives and replace that with the power of a thriving relationship with God.

We should feel a tension when we read about ourselves having a worldly view of things. If we don’t, then we have given ourselves over to the world already. We should have this tension in our lives everyday because we DO struggle with this.

Reference Verses:

-The whole book of Hosea talks about Gods graciousness and Israel’s spiritual unfaithfulness.