Reading for January 5th

Read James 4.1-10. In 4.1-10: Friendship with the world; hatred of God. In verses 1-3: In question-and-answer format, James describes the genesis of evil. Conflicts that spring from envy (3.14, 16) lead either to murder or covetousness. In verse 4: Using contrasts, he juxtaposes friendship with enmity, humility with pride, and God with the devil. Friends of the world are God's enemies, and God's friendship means enmity with the world. In verses 5-6: God's jealousy reffers to God's desire to protect what is God's; it is the opposite of envy in 3.16, which seeks to hurt another. Prov 3.34 proves that God resists the proud and enriches the humble, a theme found frequently in James. In verses 7-8: Using spatial metaphors, James urges his addressees to flee from the devil and draw near to God. The path to purity means cleansing one's hands and purifying one's heart, being wholly in God's service. Impurity lies in being double-minded, or mixing contridictory things. In verses 9-10: A return to the theme of humility (v. 6), now with a strong call to repentance. Comments or Questions..