Preaching often is so given to denunciation of sin that it fails to exalt the possibilities of the right sort of manhood. It thus repels the very men that it wishes to attract. So far from that, love for man is one of the main proofs of love for God (1 John 4:20). The passion for the souls of men is the true mark of the redeemed. Paul (Titus 2:12) urges that "denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live ... godly in this present world" (or "age" more exactly). "Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God," "whoever, then, chooses to be the world's friend turns enemy to God" (Moffatt).
A person makes his choice as he is able to do by the exercise of his own will and purpose. But once and finally made, he renders himself _ipso facto_ an enemy to God. There is no help for it so long as God is really the God of purity and righteousness. Josephus calls Poppea, the infamous wife of Nero and proselyte to Judaism, a worshiper of God (_Ant._ xx. 8. 11), but surely such "worship" was not acceptable to God. James (2:23) has termed Abraham "the friend of God," but he entered into that relation to God on terms of obedience to God as Lord. On no other terms is friendship with God possible. It is not a question of one's feelings but of the actual state of affairs. "To be on terms of friendship with the world involves living on terms of enmity with God" (Hort).
The word "friendship" does not itself occur elsewhere in the New Testament, though it is found several times in Proverbs; but the words "friend" and to "love as a friend" are common enough. Gildersleeve (_Justin Martyr_, p. 135) notes that Xenophon uses the two verbs for love as synonymous. But in the New Testament there is a distinction drawn in John 21:15-17. The one is the "deeper" and richer word, while the other is the "more human."[88] Certainly one has no right to claim intimate family relationship with God as his friend while at the same time living in adulterous relations with the sinful world that hates God. The "seductions of the world" (Plummer) are very real and very many, but surrender to them is not constant with the fellowship of God. The law of spiritual life is not always understood. Some men wonder why they are not spiritually happy, why they do not enjoy religion. They are living in sin with the world and yet marvel at their lack of communion with God.