In this passage, the key thought is found in 4:4. 'Whoever wants to be the world's friend makes himself God's enemy.' In the thought of James, the 'world' means the whole sinful state of unredeemed humanity. We can understand what James means, because we have already understood from Paul about the opposition between sinfulness and the Holy Spirit. 'For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature wants' (Galatians 5:17).

The man who lives according to the way of the world, in the thought of James, corresponds to the man who is controlled by sin in the thought of Paul. James uses different vocabulary from Paul, and never speaks of the Holy Spirit, but in spite of their differences of language and expression, their thought has similarities.

In 4:1-3 there is a very unpleasant picture of people who are fighting and quarrelling amongst themselves to grab what they think might satisfy their selfish desires. In 4:6, James says that the grace which God gives is stronger than the pull of the world. He quotes from Proverbs 3:34. In 4:7-10, James teaches how the pull of the world is to be resisted. 'Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will run away from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.... Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.' There are echoes in this of the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5:4-8.