James: Two Pictures of Friendship - Chris Dillon, Lead Pastor 07.18.21

New Life of Asheville Messages

In this week’s passage, James uses the common experience of friendship to teach us some important lessons about where we place our allegiances in this life. In fact, James is going to present us with a pressing problem that we all face, and then drive home a spiritual solution that we all desperately need. The problem, as it turns out, is friendship with the world, which he equates with spiritual adultery. We’ve all been tempted to love the things of this world (comfort, pleasure, riches, relationships, etc) more than we love God. But James reminds us that God is jealous for His people, and that we should pursue intimacy and friendship with God above all else in this life. The solution to our spiritual adultery is to humbly submit our lives to a good God by resisting the devil, drawing near to our Savior, and turning from our sin. Regardless of our past, our current sin struggles, or what the future holds...there is always more grace to be found in God!