If you believe in Jesus but do not actually do anything in your life to show it, can you still get into heaven by the skin of your teeth? Can you live your life in just the same way as everyone else – say what they say, think what they think, treat people like they treat people – and still be a Christian merely because you have at one point in your life asked Jesus to save you? This is what James had to say about unfaithfulness in the fourth chapter of his letter:
Where do the conflicts and quarrels amongst you come from? Do they not come from hungers that are at war inside you? You want something that you do not have. You kill and envy, but cannot get what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask inappropriately, to use what you get for your own pleasure. You unfaithful people, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God? Whoever chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
According to James, you have to choose whether you’re going to be in love with God or in love with the world. If you are faithful to the world – faithful to making lots of money, becoming someone important, gaining power – then you cannot be faithful to God. If you are faithful to God, then you cannot be faithful to the world. The choice is yours. If you want to be a follower of Jesus, then you have to stop trusting in your own resources and the things around you, and start stepping out into the life of risk and adventure that God has planned for you.