The Spirit within us longs to envy for God against worldliness. James 4:4-5 says, “Adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever determines to be a friend of the world is constituted an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain: ‘The Spirit, whom He has caused to dwell in us, longs to envy’?” Here James used marriage to illustrate our relationship with God. The Bible indicates in many places that God and Christ are our Husband (Isa. 54:5; 2 Cor. 11:2). We should be chaste and love Him alone with our entire being (Mark 12:30). If our heart is divided by loving the world, we become adulteresses.
When God acquired us to be His spouse, He put His Spirit into us to make us one with Him (1 Cor. 6:19, 16-17) that He may occupy our entire being (cf. Eph. 3:17) for God, causing us to be wholly for our Husband. God is a jealous God (Exo. 20:5), and His Spirit is jealous over us with the jealousy of God (2 Cor. 11:2), longing, jealously desiring, that we will not be His lover and make friends with His enemy at the same time. For this reason, the Spirit works within us to separate us from everything other than God and to keep us for God Himself only. The Spirit works in this way also to dispense into us the Triune God as the unique element that we may be sanctified and transformed.
Through His divine dispensing, the Spirit in us comforts and encourages us in our suffering of afflictions. He also gives us joy. The overcoming life that we live in the church today is the kingdom life, which is constituted of the joy of the Holy Spirit with righteousness and peace. If we are righteous and right toward others and toward God, we will have a peaceful relationship with others and with God. Thus, we will have joy in the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, the Spirit empowers us that we may abound in hope and be brought into the glory of God. He also gives us love that we can love all the saints in Christ. He also pours out God’s love in our hearts so that we are confirmed and assured concerning God’s love. He also mingles with our spirit in our faith, issuing in the spirit of faith. In this spirit we have the boldness to speak concerning Christ and our experience of Christ in His death and resurrection. He is the means for God the Father to strengthen us into our inner man. Thus, Christ makes His home in our hearts to control our entire inward being and supply and strengthen every inward part with Himself. The Spirit is also for us to live and walk by Him. By Him we have not only a general, daily walk, but also a walk that takes God’s unique goal as the direction and purpose of life. For the first kind of walk, the Spirit is our essence; for the second kind, the Spirit is our way. If we take the Spirit as our essence and our way, we will surely reach God’s goal. The Spirit also fights for us against the flesh that we may be delivered from the works of the flesh and live and walk by the Spirit. He also bears the fruit of life in many aspects in our life, such as love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, and goodness. This is the result of our living and walking by the Spirit. He also longs within us to envy for God against worldliness that He may separate us from everything other than God and keep us for Himself only.