What is God’s posture toward the world? According to the Bible, the fallen world stands in enmity toward God—but God, in mercy, calls his enemies to repentance through Jesus Christ. Scripture teaches that friendship with the world is hostility toward God (James 4:4), yet God so loved the world that he gave his Son (John 3:16).
We saw in my previous post that the posture of the fallen world toward God is that of rejection, so what is God’s posture toward the world?
The King and the rebel state: An illustration of our world
Imagine a country divided into two states and ruled by one benevolent king.
The king lives in one of the states. There he has enacted many good laws that bring economic prosperity and peace to his people. There his people love him for his wisdom, generosity, and power.
He has decreed identical laws for the other state in his country. There, however, the people hate the king and oppose his laws. There the people follow a usurper who opposes the king and urges people to ignore him. He stirs up enmity against the king by lying about him, slandering him, and questioning his intentions. The usurper teaches an opposing philosophy of government and laws.
One state is marked by admiration for the king; the other by hostility toward the king.
Nevertheless, the king in his goodness is patient and merciful toward the hostile state and for the time being does not crush the rebellion. Instead he has instituted a campaign to reclaim the hearts of the people. He has called on them to renounce the rebel leader and declare their loyalty to the king, his state, and his laws.
“The choice is yours,” he has announced to the people. “You can love your king and receive my love, or you can oppose your king and his laws and follow the rebel leader and consequently be my enemy. Choose your state. Choose your king.”
What does “enmity with God” mean? (James 4:4 explained)
This scenario illustrates the nature of our world and God’s attitude toward it. Of course, the king is God, and the usurper is Satan. What is not obvious to most people is God’s view of the rebel state and its residents.
That view is summed up in the Bible like this: “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4 ESV).
Webster’s defines enmity as “positive, active, and typically mutual hatred or ill will.”
So friendship with our fallen world is hatred, hostility, or ill will toward God. In the illustration above, to love the rebel state was to be the enemy of the king. To love the laws of the rebel state was to hate the king. To oppose the laws of the king was to oppose the him. And to follow the usurper in the rebel state was to reject the true king and be his enemy.
Why Most People Misunderstand Their Relationship with God
This is what most people today do not understand about their relationship with God. They think that if they believe God exists and try to be a good person, then it is okay with him if they generally ignore God and focus their priorities around things in this world, even godless things in this world. They believe they can make their own rules about right and wrong without reference to what the Bible says. And they believe they can love created things more than the Creator.
In all these ways they show they have set their loyalties on the rebel state and knowingly or not have chosen to be in a posture of hostility, enmity, and enemy relations with God.
God’s Mercy Toward His Enemies (John 3:16 and 3:36)
Nevertheless, God is patient and merciful. He loves his enemies and calls to repentance. He sent his Son Jesus to die for the sins of his enemies. And now he offers the gift of forgiveness and salvation to all who will bow their knee to the true king and accept him as their Lord.
“God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life…. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:16, 36).