“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
~James 4:4
Friendship with the world is hatred towards God. And worldliness incurs the wrath of God. If as child of God – bought with the blood of Jesus, saved by Jesus, exposed to God, and brought into the family of Jesus – you make the personal decision to be like the world, a metamorphosis occurs in your life. You become an enemy of God, and He treats you like one.
This was the strategy that the Prophet Balaam used against the people of Israel. He advised Balak, the king of Moab, to entice the children of Israel into friendship with his own people.
“Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.”
~Revelation 2:14
The men and women of both nations began to intermingle. As a result, the distinction of the Israelites became eroded.
“While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.”
~Numbers 25: 1-3
What happened next?
“They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people.”
~Numbers 31:16
“Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.’ We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did – and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.”
~1 Corinthians 10:8
The bible says that in one day, tens of thousands of them were slaughtered, because at that instant, they became enemies of God. God treats worldliness like adultery.
“Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?”
~James 4:5
According to the bible, God is intensely jealous over us. So when you begin to hang out with the world, He considers it as adultery, and treats you like an enemy. Choose today to shun worldliness, and maintain your divine distinction.
Memory Verse:
1 Corinthians 10:8
“Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.’ We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did – and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.”Prayer:
Father, I choose today to shun worldliness, and maintain my divine distinction in this perverse world , in Jesus’ name.
Amen.