In the virtual relationship Facebook world in which we live, the word ‘friend’ doesn’t mean much. It has lost it’s depth. I ‘friend’ my co-worker’s second-cousin’s dog-walker whom I’ve never met. So when we read “friendship with the world” in James 4:1-10, it seems innocuous. What’s so wrong with friendship? It’s doesn’t really mean anything anyway.
So, I’d like to propose an alternative wording to help us get inside James’ concern: “Don’t you know that having sex with the world destroys fidelity with God?” (James 4:4) Of course, sex can be as shallow and empty as Facebook ‘friending’, but in it’s highest form, the act of sex is about intimate connection and an expression of the intertwining of two lives–not just two bodies. Sex expresses our desire for full participation in the life of our partner.
James says (in essence) that when we unite ourselves to a world system that uses violence, coercion and domination to fulfill its goals, we embrace the very same practices. We become full participants in the ways of the world. And when we embrace violence, coercion and domination, we reject God’s way. We reject relationship with God.
If we want intimate connection with God, we have to humbly evaluate and acknowledge our participation in destructive systems of ‘the world’, reject those systems and unite ourselves to God. And God promises to lift up (embrace) those who do.
Tongue on Fire 