James 4:4

KJV

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

— James 4:4, King James Version
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James 4:4 (King James Version).

"James 4:4." King James Version. Web.

James 4:4, King James Version.

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Study Note

James's sharp address 'Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?' invokes the prophetic metaphor of marital infidelity to describe spiritual unfaithfulness. The 'adultery' language (moichalides) draws on the OT prophets — Hosea, Jeremiah 3, and Ezekiel 16 — who consistently used the marriage covenant to image the God-Israel relationship, so that idolatry or worldliness constitutes a form of covenant adultery. The 'friendship of the world' (philia tou kosmou) is not mere cultural engagement but alliance with the value system that sets itself against God — the same 'world' that 1 John 2:15-16 catalogues as lust of flesh, lust of eyes, and pride of life. Matthew 6:24's 'no man can serve two masters' and Romans 8:7's 'the carnal mind is enmity against God' provide canonical parallels to James's either/or of friendship-with-world versus friendship-with-God.

Andere Übersetzungen

ASV

Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God.

YLT

Adulterers and adulteresses! have ye not known that friendship of the world is enmity with God? whoever, then, may counsel to be a friend of the world, an enemy of God he is set.

BBE

O you who are false to God, do you not see that the friends of this world are not God's friends? Every man desiring to be a friend of this world makes himself a hater of God.

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