James 4:4 (WEB)

Passage

You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Nearby Context

James 4:2 You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.

James 4:3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

James 4:4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

James 4:5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?

James 4:6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”Proverbs 3:34

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "world", "adulterers", "adulteresses", "friendship", "hostility", "toward", "whoever", and "therefore". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "world" and "adulterers", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 3's "You ask and don t receive because..." into verse 5's "Or do you think that the Scripture...", so "world" and "adulterers" belong inside that flow. In James context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "world" and "adulterers" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.