James 4:4

The Passion Translation

You have become spiritual adulterers who are having an affair, an unholy relationship with the world. Don’t you know that flirting with the world’s values places you at odds with God? Whoever chooses to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy!

Cross References

Genesis 3:15

And I will place great hostility between you and the woman, and between her seed and yours. He will crush your head as you crush his heel.”

Psalm 21:8

Your almighty hands have captured your foes. You uncovered all who hate you and you seized them.

Psalm 50:18

You forget to condemn the thief or adulterer. You are their friend, running alongside them into darkness.

Psalm 73:27

Those who abandon the worship of God will perish. The false and unfaithful will be silenced, never heard from again.

Isaiah 57:3

“But you—come here, you son of a sorceress! You’re nothing but an offspring of an adulteress and a prostitute.

Jeremiah 2:2

“Go, preach this message publicly for all Jerusalem to hear: ‘Yahweh says to you: “ ‘I fondly remember the single-hearted devotion you had for me in your youth. You loved me deeply as a bride loves a bridegroom. You followed me closely in the desert, in a land where no crops grow.

Jeremiah 9:2

If only I had a shelter in the wilderness, a place for weary travelers to spend the night. Then I could leave my people and go away from them because they’re all unfaithful to God — a company of corrupters.

Ezekiel 16:32

You are an adulterous wife who would rather have sex with strangers than her husband.

Matthew 12:39

Jesus replied, “Only evil people who are unfaithful to God would demand a sign. There will be no sign given to you except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Matthew 16:4

A wicked and wayward generation always asks for signs, but the only sign I provide for you will be the sign of Jonah the prophet.” Then he turned away and left them.

Matthew 6:24

“How could you worship two gods at the same time? You will have to hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t worship the true God while enslaved to the god of money!”

Luke 19:27

Now, bring all those rebellious enemies of mine who rejected me as their king—bring them here before me and execute them!’ ”

John 15:19

If you were to give your allegiance to the world, they would love and welcome you as one of their own. But because you won’t align yourself with the values of this world, they will hate you. I have chosen you and taken you out of the world to be mine.

John 17:14

I have given them your message and that is why the unbelieving world hates them. For their allegiance is no longer to this world because I am not of this world.

John 7:7

The world can’t hate you, but it does me, for I am exposing their evil deeds.

Romans 5:10

So if while we were still enemies, God fully reconciled us to himself through the death of his Son, then something greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, and because we share in his resurrection life, how much more we will be rescued from sin’s dominion!

Romans 8:7

In fact, the mind-set focused on the flesh fights God’s plan and refuses to submit to his direction, because it cannot!

1 Corinthians 1:20

So where is the wise philosopher who understands? Where is the expert scholar who comprehends? And where is the skilled debater of our time who could win a debate with God? Hasn’t God demonstrated that the wisdom of this world system is utter foolishness?

1 Corinthians 1:21

For in his wisdom, God designed that all the world’s wisdom would be insufficient to lead people to the discovery of himself. He took great delight in baffling the wisdom of the world by using the simplicity of preaching the story of the cross in order to save those who believe it.

Galatians 1:10

I’m obviously not trying to flatter you or water down my message to be popular with men, but my supreme passion is to please God. For if all I attempt to do is please people, I would fail to be a true servant of Christ.

James 1:27

True spirituality that is pure in the eyes of our Father God is to make a difference in the lives of the orphans, and widows in their troubles, and to refuse to be corrupted by the world’s values.