Third Sunday in Lent (3/8)

READ: James 4:4-6 

You unfaithful people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world's friend becomes God's enemy. Or do you suppose that scripture is meaningless? Doesn’t God long for our faithfulness in the life he has given to us? But he gives us more grace. This is why it says, God stands against the proud, but favors the humble.

REFLECT 

James gives us a hard word here. There’s no neutral ground between God’s way and the world’s way. No comfortable middle space where we can keep one foot in each kingdom.

“Friendship with the world” isn’t about enjoying creation or a good TV show. It’s about adopting the world’s logic — power over love, control over trust, accumulation over generosity, self-protection over solidarity. It’s about absorbing a way of living that runs counter to the life of God. And if we’re honest, we know this tension. We want the life God offers, but we also want the security the world promises. We want the kingdom, but we don’t want to release our grip on control or comfort. We try to hold both.

But the passage doesn’t end with accusation. It ends with grace. God longs for our faithfulness because God desires our wholeness. And where we find pride, compromise, and double-mindedness, God gives more grace.

RESPOND 

Where are you trying to be friends with both God and empire—to have kingdom outcomes without kingdom costs? Choose today.

PRAY 

God who draws us away from empire’s death-dealing ways, we confess our divided loyalties. Give us grace to choose you, even when it costs us everything. Amen.