Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
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Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Parallel Translations
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Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?
You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.
You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
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From whence commeth warre and fighttynge amonge you: come they not here hence? even of youre volupteousnes that rayne in youre members.
Ye lust and have not. Ye envie and have indignacion and cannot obtayne. Ye fight and warre and have not because ye axe not.
Ye axe and receave not because ye axe a mysse: even to consume it apon youre volupteousnes.
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From whence are warres and contentions among you? are they not hence, euen of your pleasures, that fight in your members?
Ye lust, and haue not: ye enuie, and desire immoderately, and cannot obtaine: ye fight and warre, and get nothing, because ye aske not.
Ye aske, and receiue not, because ye aske amisse, that ye might lay the same out on your pleasures.
Cross-references (53)
- 1 Peter 2:11 (v1) Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
- 1 John 5:14 (v3) This is the boldness which we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us.
- Galatians 5:17 (v1) For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the…
- John 16:24 (v2) Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.
- 1 John 3:22 (v3) so whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight.
Show all 53 cross-references
- Matthew 7:7-8 (v2) “Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks…
- Romans 7:23 (v1) but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is…
- James 1:5 (v2) But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
- James 1:14 (v1) But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed.
- Romans 8:7 (v1) because the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.
- Luke 11:9-13 (v2) “I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you. For…
- 1 John 2:15-17 (v1) Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him. For all that is in the…
- Jeremiah 17:9 (v1) The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
- Jude 1:16-18 (v1) These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts—and their mouth speaks proud things—showing respect of persons to gain…
- James 1:6-7 (v3) But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. For that man…
- John 4:10 (v2) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would…
- Colossians 3:5 (v1) Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and…
- 1 Peter 1:14 (v1) as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance,
- Mark 7:21-23 (v1) For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, covetings, wickedness, deceit,…
- James 3:14-18 (v1) But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and don’t lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that…
- James 4:3 (v1) You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
- 2 Peter 3:3 (v1) knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts
- Genesis 4:5-8 (v1) but he didn’t respect Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry, and the expression on his face fell. Yahweh said to Cain, “Why are you…
- Titus 3:3 (v1) For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating…
- Titus 3:9 (v1) but shun foolish questionings, genealogies, strife, and disputes about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.
- 2 Peter 2:18 (v1) For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping…
- James 4:1 (v3) Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?
- Proverbs 15:8 (v3) The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
- Micah 3:4 (v3) Then they will cry to Yahweh, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds…
- Matthew 15:19 (v1) For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.
- 1 Timothy 6:4-10 (v1) he is conceited, knowing nothing, but obsessed with arguments, disputes, and word battles, from which come envy, strife, insulting, evil…
- 1 Timothy 6:9-10 (v2) But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation, a snare, and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and…
- 1 Peter 4:2-3 (v1) that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough…
- Psalms 66:18-19 (v3) If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened. But most certainly, God has listened. He has heard the voice of my prayer.
- Romans 7:5 (v1) For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.
- Job 35:12 (v3) There they cry, but no one answers, because of the pride of evil men.
- Proverbs 1:19 (v2) So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.
- Proverbs 21:13 (v3) Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he will also cry out, but shall not be heard.
- Zechariah 7:13 (v3) It has come to pass that, as he called, and they refused to listen, so they will call, and I will not listen,” said Yahweh of Armies;
- John 8:44 (v1) You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand…
- James 5:1-5 (v2) Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.…
- Job 27:8-10 (v3) For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life? Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?…
- Luke 16:1-2 (v3) He also said to his disciples, “There was a certain rich man who had a manager. An accusation was made to him that this man was wasting his…
- Proverbs 1:28 (v3) Then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me;
- Proverbs 21:27 (v3) The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination— how much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind!
- Jeremiah 11:14 (v3) “Therefore don’t pray for this people. Don’t lift up cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me…
- Matthew 20:22 (v3) But Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the…
- Mark 10:38 (v3) But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the…
- Luke 15:13 (v3) Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with…
- Psalms 18:41 (v3) They cried, but there was no one to save; even to Yahweh, but he didn’t answer them.
- Isaiah 1:15-16 (v3) When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of…
- Habakkuk 2:5 (v2) Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous. An arrogant man who doesn’t stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is like death, and…
- Jeremiah 14:12 (v3) When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (31 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1 From whence come wars. As he had spoken…
1 From whence come wars. As he had spoken of peace, and had reminded them that vices are to be exterminated in such a way as to preserve peace, he now comes to their contentions, by which they created confusion among themselves; and he shews that these arose from their invidious desires and lusts, rather than from a zeal for what was just and right; for if every one observed moderation, they would not have disturbed and annoyed one another. They had their hot conflicts, because their lusts were allowed to prevail unchecked.
It hence appears, that greater peace would have been among them, had every one abstained from doing wrong to others; but the vices which prevailed among them were so many attendants armed to excite contentions. He calls our faculties members. He takes lusts as designating all illicit and lustful desires or propensities which cannot be satisfied without doing injury to others.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–2 He goeth on forward in the same argument, condemning…
He goeth on forward in the same argument, condemning certain other causes of wars and contentions, to wit, unbridled pleasures and immoderate lusts, by their effects, for so much as the Lord doth worthily make them void, so that they bring nothing else to them in whom they are but incurable torments.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1 From whence come wars and fightings among you?…
1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Ver. 1. From whence come wars] That is, word wars, needless and endless strifes and contentions. The Greek word πολεμοι properly signifies quarrels that cause much bloodshed.
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Among you] Being, 1. Brethren; and that one consideration should quash all quarrels; and should be like the angel that stayed Abraham’s hand when the blow was coming. 2. Scattered brethren, Jas 1:1; and should not misery breed unity? Is it not enough, that blows great store are dealt you by the common adversary, but your own must add to the violence? Surely all unkind and unchristian strifes would easily be composed, did we not forget that we are brethren and fellow sufferers.
Even of your lusts] Gr. νδονων, of your pleasures, for wicked men take pleasure in unrighteousness, it is their meat and drink, Pro 4:17, they cannot sleep, nay, live without it, Jas 4:16. Look how Tartarians feed upon carrion with as great delight as we do upon venison; as the Turkish galley slaves eat opium as if it were bread, and as the maid in Pliny fed on spiders, and digested them into nourishment; so do sensualists feed upon sin’s murdering morsels, and swallow them down with delight.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Wars and fightings; either it may be understood properly…
Wars and fightings; either it may be understood properly of insurrections, and tumults, in which, possibly, some carnal professors might be engaged; or rather, strife and contention about outward things, wranglings among themselves, and going to law, especially before unbelieving judges, 1Co 6:1.
Your lusts; Greek, pleasures, i.e. those lusts whereof pleasure is the end, which is therefore put for the lusts themselves: he means the over eager desire of riches, worldly greatness, carnal delights, Tit 3:3, where lusts and pleasures go together.
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That war; oppose and tumultuate against reason, conscience, grace, Rom 7:23; 1Pe 2:11.
In your members; not only the members of the body, but faculties of the soul, exercised by them; all the parts of man unrenewed, Col 3:5, which are used as weapons of unrighteousness, Rom 6:13.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv1–2 The Jews, to whom St. James directed this epistle,…
The Jews, to whom St. James directed this epistle, had at that time great wars and fightings, not only with their neighbours, but even among themselves: in every city there were wars and fightings among them.
Now, the apostle here puts it to their consciences to tell and declare whence these animosities and contentions, those wars and fightings, did proceed; come they not hence, even from your lusts?
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Plainly intimating, that the cause of all civil dissentions are men’s corruptions: War stirs first within, before it breaks forth without; were there not a fight in ourselves, there would be no fighting with others. Lust within is the make-bait in all societies and communities without. Pride and covetousness, envy and ambition, make men injurious to one another; worldly and sensual lusts first war in ourselves, before they disturb the common peace.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 The former chapter speaks of envying one another, as…
The former chapter speaks of envying one another, as the great spring of strifes and contentions; this chapter speaks of a lust after worldly things, and a setting too great a value upon worldly pleasures and friendships, as that which carried their divisions to a shameful height.
I. The apostle here reproves the Jewish Christians for their wars, and for their lusts as the cause of them: Whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members, Jam 4:1. The Jews were a very seditious people, and had therefore frequent wars with the Romans; and they were a very quarrelsome divided people, often fighting among themselves; and many of those corrupt Christians against whose errors and vices this epistle was written seem to have fallen in with the common quarrels. Hereupon, our apostle informs them that the origin of their wars and fightings was not (as they pretended) a true zeal for their country, and for the honour of God, but that their prevailing lusts were the cause of all. Observe hence, What is sheltered and shrouded under a specious pretence of zeal for God and religion often comes from men's pride, malice, covetousness, ambition, and revenge. The Jews had many struggles with the Roman power before they ere entirely destroyed. They often unnecessarily embroiled themselves, and then fell into parties and factions about the different methods of managing their wars with their common enemies; and hence it came to pass that, when their cause might be supposed good, yet their engaging in it and their management of it came from a bad principle. Their worldly and fleshly lusts raised and managed their wars and fightings; but one would think here is enough said to subdue those lusts; for, 1. They make a war within as well as fightings without. Impetuous passions and desires first war in their members, and then raise feuds in their nation. There is war between conscience and corruption, and there is war also between one corruption and another, and from these contentions in themselves arose their quarrels with each other. Apply this to private cases, and may we not then say of fightings and strifes among relations and neighbours they come from those lusts which war in the members? From lust of power and dominion, lust of pleasure, or lust of riches, from some one or more of these lusts arise all the broils and contentions that are in the world; and, since all wars and fightings come from the corruptions of our own hearts, it is therefore the right method for the cure of contention to lay the axe to the root, and mortify those lusts that war in the members. 2. It should kill these lusts to think of their disappointment: "You lust, and have not; you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain, Jam 4:2. You covet great things for yourselves, and you think to obtain them by your victories over the Romans or by suppressing this and the other party among yourselves. You think you shall secure great pleasures and happiness to yourselves, by overthrowing every thing which thwarts your eager wishes; but, alas! you are losing your labour and your blood, while you kill one another with such views as these." Inordinate desires are either totally disappointed, or they are not to be appeased and satisfied by obtaining the things desired. The words here rendered cannot obtain signify cannot gain the happiness sought after. Note hence, Worldly and fleshly lusts are the distemper which will not allow of contentment or satisfaction in the mind. 3. Sinful desires and affections generally exclude prayer, and the working of our desires towards God: "You fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not. You fight, and do not succeed, because you do not pray you do not consult God in your undertakings, whether he will allow of them or not; and you do not commit your way to him, and make known your requests to him, but follow your own corrupt views and inclinations: therefore you meet with continual disappointments;" or else. 4. "Your lusts spoil your prayers, and make them an abomination to God, whenever you put them up to him, v. 3. You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts." As if it had been said, "Though perhaps you may sometimes pray for success against your enemies, yet it is not your aim to improve the advantages you gain, so as to promote true piety and religion either in yourselves or others; but pride, vanity, luxury, and sensuality, are what you would serve by your successes, and by your very prayers. You want to live in great power and plenty, in voluptuousness and a sensual prosperity; and thus you disgrace devotion and dishonour God by such gross and base ends; and therefore your prayers are rejected." Let us learn hence, in the management of all our worldly affairs, and in our prayers to God for success in them, to see that our ends be right. When men follow their worldly business (suppose them tradesmen or husbandmen), and ask of God prosperity, but do not receive what they ask for, it is because they ask with wrong aims and intentions. They ask God to give them success in their callings or undertakings; not that they may glorify their heavenly Father and do good with what they have, but that they may consume it upon their lusts - that they may be enabled to eat better meat, and drink better drink, and wear better clothes, and so gratify their pride, vanity, and voluptuousness. But, if we thus seek the things of this world, it is just in God to deny them; whereas, if we seek any thing that we may serve God with it, we may expect he will either give us what we seek or give us hearts to be content without it, and give opportunities of serving and glorifying him some other way. Let us remember this, that when we speed not in our prayers it is because we ask amiss; either we do not ask for right ends or not in a right manner, not with faith or not with fervency: unbelieving and cold desires beg denials; and this we may be sure of, that, when our prayers are rather the language of our lusts than of our graces, they will return empty.
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II. We have fair warning to avoid all criminal friendships with this world: You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Jam 4:4. Worldly people are here called adulterers and adulteresses, because of their perfidiousness of God, while they give their best affections to the world. Covetousness is elsewhere called idolatry, and it is here called adultery; it is a forsaking of him to whom we are devoted and espoused, to cleave to other things; there is this brand put upon worldly-mindedness - that it is enmity to God. A man may have a competent portion of the good things of this life, and yet may keep himself in the love of God; but he who sets his heart upon the world, who places his happiness in it, and will conform himself to it, and do any thing rather than lose its friendship, he is an enemy to God; it is constructive treason and rebellion against God to set the world upon his throne in our hearts. Whosoever therefore is the friend of the world is the enemy of God. He who will act upon this principle, to keep the smiles of the world, and to have its continual friendship, cannot but show himself, in spirit, and in his actions too, an enemy to God. You cannot serve God and mammon, Mat 6:24. Hence arise wars and fightings, even from this adulterous idolatrous love of the world, and serving of it; for what peace can there be among men, so long as there is enmity towards God? or who can fight against God, and prosper? "Think seriously with yourselves what the spirit of the world is, and you will find that you cannot suit yourselves to it as friends, but it must occasion your being envious, and full of evil inclinations, as the generality of the world are. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?" Jam 4:5. The account given in the holy scriptures of the hearts of men by nature is that their imagination is evil, only evil, and that continually, Gen 6:5. Natural corruption principally shows itself by envying, and there is a continual propensity to this. The spirit which naturally dwells in man is always producing one evil imagination or another, always emulating such as we see and converse with and seeking those things which are possessed and enjoyed by them. Now this way of the world, affecting pomp and pleasure, and falling into strifes and quarrels for the sake of these things, is the certain consequence of being friends to the world; for there is no friendship without a oneness of spirit, and therefore Christians, to avoid contentions, must avoid the friendship of the world, and must show that they are actuated by nobler principles and that a nobler spirit dwells in them; for, if we belong to God, he gives more grace than to live and act as the generality of the world do. The spirit of the world teaches men to be churls; God teaches them to be bountiful. The spirit of the world teaches us to lay up, or lay out, for ourselves, and according to our own fancies; God teaches us to be willing to communicate to the necessities and to the comfort of others, and so as to do good to all about us, according to our ability. The grace of God is contrary to the spirit of the world, and therefore the friendship of the world is to be avoided, if we pretend to be friends of God yea, the grace of God will correct and cure the spirit that naturally dwells in us; where he giveth grace, he giveth another spirit than that of the world.
III. We are taught to observe the difference God makes between pride and humility. God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble, Jam 4:6. This is represented as the language of scripture in the Old Testament; for so it is declared in the book of Psalms that God will save the afflicted people (if their spirits be suited to their condition), but will bring down high looks (Psa 18:27); and in the book of Proverbs it is said, He scorneth the scorners, and giveth grace unto the lowly, Pro 3:34. Two things are here to be observed: - 1. The disgrace cast upon the proud: God resists them; the original word, antitassetai, signifies, God's setting himself as in battle array against them; and can there be a greater disgrace than for God to proclaim a man a rebel, an enemy, a traitor to his crown and dignity, and to proceed against him as such? The proud resists God; in his understanding he resists the truths of God; in his will he resists the truths of God; in his will he resists the laws of God; in his passions he resists the providence of God; and therefore no wonder that God sets himself against the proud. Let proud spirits hear this and tremble - God resists them. Who can describe the wretched state of those who make God their enemy? He will certainly fill with same (sooner or later) the faces of such as have filled their hearts with pride. We should therefore resist pride in our hearts, if we would not have God to resist us. 2. The honour and help God gives to the humble. Grace, as opposed to disgrace, is honour; this God gives to the humble; and, where God gives grace to be humble, there he will give all other graces, and, as in the beginning of this sixth verse, he will give more grace. Wherever God gives true grace, he will give more; for to him that hath, and useth what he hath aright, more shall be given. He will especially give more grace to the humble, because they see their need of it, will pray for it and be thankful for it; and such shall have it. For this reason,
IV. We are taught to submit ourselves entirely to God: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you, Jam 4:7. Christians should forsake the friendship of the world, and watch against that envy and pride which they see prevailing in natural men, and should by grace learn to glory in their submissions to God. "Submit yourselves to him as subjects to their prince, in duty, and as one friend to another, in love and interest. Submit your understandings to the truths of God; submit your wills to the will of God, the will of his precept, the will of his providence." We are subjects, and as such must be submissive; not only through fear, but through love; not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake. "Submit yourselves to God, as considering how many ways you are bound to this, and as considering what advantage you will gain by it; for God will not hurt you by his dominion over you, but will do you good." Now, as this subjection and submission to God are what the devil most industriously strives to hinder, so we ought with great care and steadiness to resist his suggestions. If he would represent a tame yielding to the will and providence of God as what will bring calamities, and expose to contempt and misery, we must resist these suggestions of fear. If he would represent submission to God as a hindrance to our outward ease, or worldly preferments, we must resist these suggestions of pride and sloth. If he would tempt us to lay any of our miseries, and crosses, and afflictions, to the charge of Providence, so that we might avoid them by following his directions instead of God's, we must resist these provocations to anger, not fretting ourselves in any wise to do evil. "Let not the devil, in these or the like attempts, prevail upon you; but resist him and he will flee from you." If we basely yield to temptations, the devil will continually follow us; but if we put on the whole armour of God, and stand it out against him, he will be gone from us. Resolution shuts and bolts the door against temptation.
V. We are directed how to act towards God, in our becoming submissive to him, Jam 4:8-10. 1. Draw nigh to God. The heart that has rebelled must be brought to the foot of God; the spirit that was distant and estranged from a life of communion and converse with God must become acquainted with him: "Draw nigh to God, in his worship and institutions, and in every duty he requires of you." 2. Cleanse your hands. He who comes unto God must have clean hands. Paul therefore directs to lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting (Ti1 2:8), hands free from blood, and bribes, and every thing that is unjust or cruel, and free from every defilement of sin: he is not subject to God who is a servant of sin. The hands must be cleansed by faith, repentance, and reformation, or it will be in vain for us to draw nigh to God in prayer, or in any of the exercises of devotion. 3. The hearts of the double-minded must be purified. Those who halt between God and the world are here meant by the double-minded. To purify the heart is to be sincere, and to act upon this single aim and principle, rather to please God than to seek after any thing in this world: hypocrisy is heart-impurity; but those who submit themselves to God aright will purify their hearts as well as cleanse their hands. 4. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep. "What afflictions God sends take them as he would have you, and by duly sensible of them. Be afflicted when afflictions are sent upon you, and do not despise them; or be afflicted in your sympathies with those who are so, and in laying to heart the calamities of the church of God. Mourn and weep for your own sins and the sins of others; times of contention and division are times to mourn in, and the sins that occasion wars and fightings should be mourned for. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness." This may be taken either as a prediction of sorrow or a prescription of seriousness. Let men think to set grief at defiance, yet God can bring it upon them; none laugh so heartily but he can turn their laughter into mourning; and this the unconcerned Christians James wrote to are threatened should be their case. They are therefore directed, before things come to the worst, to lay aside their vain mirth and their sensual pleasures, that they might indulge godly sorrow and penitential tears. 5. "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. Let the inward acts of the would be suitable to all those outward expressions of grief, affliction, and sorrow, before mentioned." Humility of spirit is here required, as in the sight of him who looks principally at the spirits of men. "Let there be a thorough humiliation in bewailing every thing that is evil; let there be great humility in doing that which is good: Humble yourselves."
VI. We have great encouragement to act thus towards God: He will draw nigh to those that draw nigh to him (Jam 4:8), and he will lift up those who humble themselves in his sight, Jam 4:10. Those that draw nigh to God in a way of duty shall find God drawing nigh to them in a way of mercy. Draw nigh to him in faith, and trust, and obedience, and he will draw nigh to you for your deliverance. If there be not a close communion between God and us, it is our fault, and not his. He shall lift up the humble. Thus much our Lord himself declared, He that shall humble himself shall be exalted, Mat 23:12. If we be truly penitent and humble under the marks of God's displeasure, we shall in a little time know the advantages of his favour; he will lift us up out of trouble, or he will lift us up in our spirits and comforts under trouble; he will lift us up to honour and safety in the world, or he will lift us up in our way to heaven, so as to raise our hearts and affections above the world. God will revive the spirit of the humble (Isa 57:15), He will hear the desire of the humble (Psa 10:17), and he will at last life them up to glory. Before honour is humility. The highest honour in heaven will be the reward of the greatest humility on earth.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–3 From whence come wars and fightings among you?.... Which…
From whence come wars and fightings among you?.... Which are to be understood, not of public and national wars, such as might be between the Jews and other nations at this time; for the apostle is not writing to the Jews in Judea, as a nation, or body politic, but to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, and to such of them as were Christians; nor were Christians in general as yet increased, and become such large bodies, or were whole nations become Christians, and much less at war one against another, which has been the case since; and which, when it is, generally speaking arises from a lust after an increase of power; from the pride and ambitious views of men, and their envy at the happiness of other princes and states: nor do these design theological debates and disputes, or contentions about religious principles; but rather lawsuits, commenced before Heathen magistrates, by the rich, to the oppression of the poor; see Jam 2:6 though it seems best of all to interpret them of those stirs and bustlings, strifes, contentions, and quarrels, about honours and riches; endeavouring to get them by unlawful methods, at least at the expense of their own peace, and that of others:
come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? as pride, envy, covetousness, ambition, &c. which, like so many soldiers, are stationed and quartered in the members of the body, and war against the soul; for in the believer, or converted man, however, there is as it were two armies; a law in the members, warring against the law of the mind; the flesh against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and from this inward war arise external ones; or at least from the corruption of nature, which militates against all that is good, all quarrels and contentions, whether public or private, of a greater or lesser nature, and consequence, spring.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–3 From whence come wars and fightings - Quarrels and…
From whence come wars and fightings - Quarrels and wars among you, quite opposite to this peace? Is it not from your pleasures - Your desires of earthly pleasures. Which war - Against your souls. In your members - Here is the first seat of the war. Hence proceeds the war of man with man, king with king, nation with nation.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–3 The origin of wars and contentions, and the wretched…
CHAPTER IV.
The origin of wars and contentions, and the wretched lot of
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those who are engaged in them, 1, 2.
Why so little heavenly good is obtained, 3.
The friendship of the world is enmity with God, 4, 5.
God resists the proud, 6.
Men should submit to God, and pray, 7, 8.
Should humble themselves, 9, 10.
And not speak evil of each other, 11, 12.
The impiety of those who consult not the will of God, and
depend not on his providence, 13-15.
The sin of him who knows the will of God, and does not do it,
16, 17.
NOTES ON CHAP. IV.
Verse 1. From whence come wars and fightings] About the time in which St. James wrote, whether we follow the earlier or the later date of this epistle, we find, according to the accounts given by Josephus, Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. 17, c., that the Jews, under pretence of defending their religion, and procuring that liberty to which they believed themselves entitled, made various insurrections in Judea against the Romans, which occasioned much bloodshed and misery to their nation. The factions also, into which the Jews were split, had violent contentions among themselves, in which they massacred and plundered each other. In the provinces, likewise, the Jews became very turbulent particularly in Alexandria, and different other parts of Egypt, of Syria, and other places, where they made war against the heathens, killing many, and being massacred in their turn. They were led to these outrages by the opinion that they were bound by their law to extirpate idolatry, and to kill all those who would not become proselytes to Judaism. These are probably the wars and fightings to which St. James alludes; and which they undertook rather from a principle of covetousness than from any sincere desire to convert the heathen. See Macknight.
Come they not hence - of your lusts] This was the principle from which these Jewish contentions and predatory wars proceeded, and the principle from which all the wars that have afflicted and desolated the world have proceeded. One nation or king covets another's territory or property; and, as conquest is supposed to give right to all the possessions gained by it, they kill, slay, burn, and destroy, till one is overcome or exhausted, and then the other makes his own terms; or, several neighbouring potentates fall upon one that is weak; and, after murdering one half of the people, partition among themselves the fallen king's territory; just as the Austrians, Prussians, and Russians have done with the kingdom of Poland! - a stain upon their justice and policy which no lapse of time can ever wash out.
These wars and fightings could not be attributed to the Christians in that time; for, howsoever fallen or degenerate, they had no power to raise contentions; and no political consequence to enable them to resist their enemies by the edge of the sword, or resistance of any kind.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Jas 4:1. The crimes condemned in this and the…
Jas 4:1. The crimes condemned in this and the following chapter were so atrocious, and of so public a nature, that we can hardly suppose them to have been committed by any who bore the name of Christians. Wherefore, as this letter was directed to the twelve tribes, (Jas 1:1,) it is reasonable to think that the apostle, in writing these chapters, had the unbelieving Jews, not only in the provinces, but in Judea, chiefly in his eye. From whence come wars and fightings among you — Some time before the breaking out of the war with the Romans, which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Jewish commonwealth, the Jews, as Josephus informs us, on pretence of defending their religion, and of procuring to themselves that freedom from foreign dominion, and that liberty which they thought themselves entitled to as the people of God, made various insurrections in Judea against the Romans, which occasioned much bloodshed and misery to their nation. The factions, likewise, into which the more zealous Jews were now split, had violent contentions among themselves, in which they killed one another, and plundered one another’s goods. In the provinces likewise the Jews were become very turbulent; particularly in Alexandria, Egypt, Syria, and many other places, where they made war against the heathen, and killed numbers of them, and were themselves massacred by them in their turn. This being the state of the Jews in Judea, and in the provinces, about the time the Apostle James wrote his epistle to the twelve tribes, it can hardly be doubted that the wars, fightings, and murders, of which he here speaks, were those above described. For as he composed his letters after the confusions were begun, and as the crimes committed in these confusions, although acted under the colour of zeal for God and for truth, were a scandal to any religion, it certainly became him, who was one of the chief apostles of the circumcision, to condemn such insurrections, and to rebuke, with the greatest sharpness, the Jews who were the prime movers in them. Accordingly, this is what he hath done. And both in this and in the following chapter, using the rhetorical figure called apostrophe, he addresses the Jews as if they were present, whereby he hath given his discourse great strength and vivacity. See Macknight. Come they not hence, even of your lusts — Greek, ηδονων, pleasures; that is, your greedy desire after the pleasures and enjoyments of the world; that war — Against your souls; or raise tumults, as it were, and rebel both against reason and religion; in your members — In your wills and affections. Here is the first seat of war. Hence proceeds the war of man with man, king with king, nation with nation; the ambition of kings and nations to extend their territories; their love of grandeur and riches; their resentments of supposed injuries; all the effect of lust, or of earthly, sensual, and devilish desires, engage them in wars.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–3 From whence come wars and fightings among you? -…
From whence come wars and fightings among you? - Margin, “brawlings.” The reference is to strifes and contentions of all kinds; and the question, then, as it is now, was an important one, what was their source or origin? The answer is given in the succeeding part of the verse. Some have supposed that the apostle refers here to the contests and seditions existing among the Jews, which afterwards broke out in rebellion against the Roman authority, and which led to the overthrow of the Jewish nation. But the more probable reference is to domestic broils, and to the strifes of sects and parties; to the disputes which were carried on among the Jewish people, and which perhaps led to scenes of violence, and to popular outbreaks among themselves. When the apostle says “among you,” it is not necessary to suppose that he refers to those who were members of the Christian church as actually engaged in these strifes, though he was writing to such; but he speaks of them as a part of the Jewish people, and refers to the contentions which prevailed among them as a people - contentions in which those who were Christian converts were in great danger of participating, by being drawn into their controversies, and partaking of the spirit of strife which existed among their countrymen. It is known that such a spirit of contention prevailed among the Jews at that time in an eminent degree, and it was well to put those among them who professed to be Christians on their guard against such a spirit, by stating the causes of all wars and contentions. The solution which the apostle has given of the causes of the strifes prevailing then, will apply substantially to all the wars which have ever existed on the earth.
Come they not hence, even of your lusts? - Is not this the true source of all war and contention? The word rendered “lusts” is in the margin rendered “pleasures.” This is the usual meaning of the word (ἡδονὴ hēdonē); but it is commonly applied to the pleasures of sense, and thence denotes desire, appetite, lust. It may be applied to any desire of sensual gratification, and then to the indulgence of any corrupt propensity of the mind. The lust or desire of rapine, of plunder, of ambition, of fame, of a more extended dominion, I would be properly embraced in the meaning of the word. The word would equally comprehend the spirit which leads to a brawl in the street, and that which prompted to the conquests of Alexander, Caesar, or Napoleon. All this is the same spirit evinced on a larger or smaller scale.
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That war in your members - The word “member” (μέλος melos) denotes, properly, a limb or member of the body; but it is used in the New Testament to denote the members of the body collectively; that is, the body itself as the seat of the desires and passions, Rom 6:13, Rom 6:19; Rom 7:5, Rom 7:23; Col 3:5. The word war here refers to the conflict between those passions which have their seat in the flesh, and the better principles of the mind and conscience, producing a state of agitation and conflict. See the notes at Rom 7:23. Compare Gal 5:17. Those corrupt passions which have their seat in the flesh, the apostle says are the causes of war. Most of the wars which have occurred in the world can be traced to what the apostle here calls lusts. The desire of booty, the love of conquest, the ambition for extended rule, the gratification of revenge, these and similar causes have led to all the wars that have desolated the earth. Justice, equity, the fear of God, the spirit of true religion, never originated any war, but the corrupt passions of men have made the earth one great battle-field. If true religion existed among all men, there would be no more war. War always supposes that wrong has been done on one side or the other, and that one party or the other, or both, is indisposed to do right. The spirit of justice, equity, and truth, which the religion of Christ would implant in the human heart, would put an end to war forever.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Whence are wars [1] and contentions, in all kinds,…
Whence are wars [1] and contentions, in all kinds, but from your lusts and disorderly passions, coveting to have and enjoy what you have not, as to pleasures, riches, honours, &c. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Unde bella et lites? Greek: polemoi kai machai, as also ver. 2, litigatis et belligeratis, Greek: machesthe, kai polemeite. I see no reason to translate it, by lawsuits and pleadings, as Mr. N.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 James Chapter 4
James Chapter 4
In all that follows we have still the judgment of unbridled nature, of will in its different forms: contentions that arise from the lusts of the natural heart; request made to God proceeding from the same source; the desires of the flesh and of the mind developing themselves and finding their sphere in the friendship of the world, which is thus enmity against God. The nature of man covets enviously, is full of envy with regard to others. But God gives more grace: there is counteracting power, if one is content to be little and humble, to be as nothing in the world. The grace and favour of God are with such an one; for He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Upon this, the apostle unfolds the action of a soul directed by the Spirit of God, in the midst of the unbelieving and selfish multitude with whom it was associated. (V 6-10) For he still supposes the believers whom he addressed to be in connection with the law. If they spoke evil of their brother, to whom the law gave a place before God, they spoke evil of the law, [1] according to which his value was so great. Judgment belonged to God, who had given the law, and who would vindicate His own authority as well as grant deliverance and salvation.
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Verses 13-16. The same self-will and forgetfulness of God are blamed, the false confidence that flows from reckoning upon being able to do as one pleases-the absence of dependence on God. Verse 17 is a general conclusion, founded on the principle already suggested (chapter 3:1) , and on that which is said with regard to faith. The knowledge of good, without its practice, causes even the absence of the work which one could have performed to be a positive sin. The action of the new man is absent, that of the old man is present; for the good is before our eyes- we know what we ought to do, and do not choose to do it; there is no inclination to do it-we will not do it.
Footnotes for James Chapter 4
1: Compare 1Th 4:8 where the Spirit takes the place of the law here.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1
VII. FIFTH ADMONITION
REFERENCE TO THE INFALLIBLE TOKEN OF AN UNSPIRITUAL (FANATICAL) MENTAL CONSTITUTION FOUNDED ON WORLDLY-MINDEDNESS, VIZ.: THE WARS AND FIGHTINGS IN THE JEWISH CHRISTIAN WORLD AND PARTICULARLY IN THE JEWISH WORLD BOTH INWARDLY AND OUTWARDLY.—THE CONSEQUENCE THERE-OF: FAILURE AND FRUSTRATION OF THEIR STRIVING, THEIR MURDEROUS ENVYING, THEIR WARRING AND EVEN OF THEIR PRAYING
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Jam_4:1-3
1 From whence come wars and1 fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 2Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and 3cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet2 ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask3, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Analysis:—See above in summary of contents. The Apostle comes now to worldly-mindedness [i.e. the lust of the world—M.] which lies at the bottom of the fanatical zeal of teaching and wrangling described in the preceding chapter. He began with the appearance of visionariness (James 1), passed on to party-spirit (James 2), then portrayed fanatical striving in its outward aspect (James 3) in order to come now to the inward disruptions and breaches among the readers of his Epistle and to worldly-mindedness, which is really the root from which they spring. By and by (Jam_4:4 etc.) we shall meet it in the shape of selfishness and a bias to apostasy (James 5), as self-righteousness ripe unto judgment. The Apostle moreover passes more and more from the Jewish Christians to the Judaizing Christians and from these to the real Judaistic Jews themselves. This suggests the remark that James put this Epistle into the hands of the Jewish Christians in order that it might influence all Jews, as it were, as a missionary instruction to the converted over against the unconverted, and to the rightly-converted over against the badly-converted. Notice the rapid transition from the thought immediately preceding, viz.: that righteousness can prosper only in peace, to the impressive question: πόθεν πόλεμοι, the answer to which is contained in a second question appealing (Wiesinger) to the conscience of the readers (Huther).
Jam_4:1. Whence then are wars and whence fightings?—Not only dogmatical disputes between the teachers (Schneckenburger), or civil contentions concerning “meum” and “tuum” (de Wette). It is a true picture of the hostile dissensions of the Jewish people. Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Alexandrians, Samaritans—on this basis sprung up nothing but new dissensions; believing or Christian and unbelieving Jews. The former contained as yet in the germ the opposites of Nazarenes and Ebionites, of Essene-gnostic and Pharisaic-vulgar Ebionites, the latter the shocking discord which appeared in the Jewish war and during the siege of Jerusalem. The πόλεμοι were the basis: the condition of war [warlike attitude], the μάχαι, single quarrels and fightings, which certainly partook occasionally of the character of skirmishes and at a later period even of battles; this is denied by Laurentius: “non loquitur Apostolus de bellis et cædibus, sed de mutuis dissidiis, litibus, jurgiis et contentionibus.” [Alford renders “militate.” To act the soldier is the real meaning of στρατευομένων.—M. ].
Is it not hence?—The explanation; for ἐντεῦθεν is not a separate question: from hence? (Michaelis).
From your lusts.—ἡδοναί are more than ἐπιθυμίαι (Huther); they are desires actualized, a life of sensual indulgence (Luther: voluptuousness, Wollüste). These wage war chiefly in the members. The members need hardly be emphasized as being the camp of the lusts (Wiesinger); nor is the idea that they war against the soul (Rom_7:23; 1Pe_2:11; de Wette) the leading idea. Theile, Schneckenburger and others rightly apply the term to the war of the lusts among themselves. Huther thinks it denotes an inward warfare against our fellow-men, but ἡδοναί would hardly be the most suitable word to bring out that idea. We might however think of the members in a restricted and in a wider sense; the members of individuals and the members of the people. From the individual Jew, whose lusts become inimically opposed in his members, the division and dissension between spiritual selfishness and vain worldly-mindedness are communicated to the members of the whole nation. Wiesinger thinks the fightings denote opposition of the ἐπιθυμεῖν and the οὐκ ἔχειν. The fruitless struggling however is only an appearance and a judgment of this fighting. It is described in four gradations: 1, desiring; 2, murdering and envying; 3, fighting and warring; 4, praying and not receiving. To the first corresponds not having, to the second not obtaining, to the third an increased not having, to the fourth an increased not receiving. The first grade denotes Judaism full of chiliastic worldly-mindedness up to the time of the New Testament. The second grade describes particularly the attitude of the Jews towards the Christians. The third grade comprises the development of the Jewish war. The fourth is mainly the history of Judaism after the destruction of Jerusalem. Such a definite mapping out of periods was of course not intended by the Apostle, but it describes the process of the development of Judaism as unfolded by history. The common construction that the reference here is either to the desire of individuals or of entire churches, and the limitation of the object of that desire to worldly riches and glory are inadequate to the prophetical relation in which James stood to his people. [Alford cites a remarkable parallel from Plato, Phædo. p. 66, c: καὶ γὰρ πολέμους καὶ στάσεις καὶ μάχας οὐδὲν ἄλλο παρέχει ἤ τὸ σῶμα καὶ αἱ τοῦτου ἐπιθυμίαι.—M.].
Jam_4:2. Ye desire it and ye have it not.—The indefinite object at all events is implied; in the most general sense the object of the chiliastico-judaistic longing for the world [ Welt-sehnsucht, i.e. longing for the dominion of the world—M.], in the utmost variety of form and colour, nominally the fruit of righteousness, Jam_3:18. The antithesis pregnantly expresses the fruitlessness of the struggle. Ye have not has of course also the sense: ye receive not (de Wette); but it declares at the same time that they receive not, because they have not, because they are empty (Luk_19:26). [Desire is not possession; there is many a slip between the cup and the lip.—M.].
Ye murder and ye envy.—This strong expression has induced commentators to submit various modifications of it arising from their supposition that the Apostle here addresses only Christians and refers as yet only to the internal dissensions among the members themselves. Ye kill your own soul (Oecumenius), ye envy (according to the conjectured reading φθονεῖτε, Erasmus, Calvin and many others), ye hate (according to the doctrine that hatred is murder in thought 1Jn_3:15. Luther, Estius, Wiesinger, Huther) ye strive even to murder and death (Carpzov, Schneckenburger). Winer rightly advocates the literal sense of the term. That ζηλοῦτε is not mentioned first proves nothing: for the two terms are not intended to a stronger and a weaker degree of conduct, but the negative and positive sides of their conduct. They committed murder because they thought they were zealous for the glory of God. With their striving they were hunting for the fleshly ideal of the glorifying of their religion. On that account also murder must come first. The twelve tribes, however, who had already killed the Lord Himself and Stephen, who were in part responsible for the death of the Baptist and James the son of Zebedee, who had already shown the disposition to kill Paul, and who soon after did kill the author of the Epistle himself, had to submit to this address; the Christians among them were at least sympathizing with these national offences. But their acts of murder and strife were wholly in vain, as were afterwards the acts of the inquisition, the hierarchical judicial murders and religious wars of the zeal of the middle ages from the Crusade against the Albigenses to the Thirty years’ War. Ye do not attain your terrible, hypocritical end, the Babel of conscience-monarchy in the pseudo-glory of Zion.
Ye fight and ye make war.—These words are not merely explanatory of πόλεμοι Jam_4:1 (Huther), for the primary reference is no longer to the quarrels among the Jews themselves. Their individual words become at last open fighting, and this leads to open warfare. Hence οὐκ ἔχετε is repeated here, and, as we read with Griesbach and Lachmann, with καὶ preceding it, “and yet ye have not, i.e. ye get it not.” We join this with what goes before in order to constitute the third antithesis, not with what follows (Huther) to introduce the specification of the cause of all their disappointments.—Not till then follows the reason, not only of the frustration of their warring, but also of their murderous striving and desiring. All lacks the true life of prayer, which purifies, hallows and adjusts our efforts to the Divine disposition of affairs. But the probable protestation of the Judaists: “we pray much,” prompts the Apostle to add an ironical self-correction which brings out the fourth and most terrible antithesis. Their asking (αἰτεῖν) is evil praying (αἰτεῖσθαι. The Apostle having introduced an interchange of Active and Middle—see Winer, p. James 297: Matthiä 2. p. 1097.—he may here either take the Active as denoting importunate asking or the Middle as denoting egotistical praying for oneself. The latter is probably intended.), and for the reason that they pray for the help of Jehovah for a fulness of prosperity which they intend to squander in the lusts of their worldly mind. We have here to remind the reader of the visionary expectations of the Jews during the destruction of Jerusalem, of their gloomy lamentations in the post-christian synagogue (how they make God Himself weep over the unhappiness of His people) and of their vain, worldly striving and their description of the most sensual carousals in the future Kingdom of God.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. It is indeed a sad contrast if we oppose the name of Christ as that of the Prince of Peace (Isa_9:6) to the wretched quarrels and disputes of those who call themselves Christians and yet not uncommonly carry on such quarrels in His name. The question of James “Whence are wars and whence fightings among you?” may be addressed with equal pertinence to the countless sects and parties in just as many Christian communities in every age of the Church’s history. The cause is really still the same now which it was in the Apostolic age, viz.: the carnal mind which exhibits the selfishness of the natural man, after he has been baptized. The Church of Christ, which ought to be a Zion of peace, has in consequence become a Babel of confusion. But the serpent-seed of discord bears even now the same unhappy fruit which it did then. The sword which the loveless man turns against his brother, wounds his own hands, and in proportion as men covet what is their neighbour’s, they themselves grow poorer in true peace.
2. There is no greater enemy of the true spirit of prayer than the spirit of quarrelsomeness and contention, cf. 1Pe_3:7. It is impossible to find faith where love is wanting; how then can the unbelieving prayer of an ἀνὴρ δίψυχος (cf. Jam_1:6-8) obtain any thing at the Lord’s hand? Many a complaint of prayers not answered would surely cease, if men did not confine themselves to hearing their hearts only concerning the disappointment they have experienced, but would also examine their consciences concerning hidden guilt, which renders the hearing of prayer on the part of God morally impossible. Cf. Isa_1:11-15.
3. Prayer in order to be well-pleasing to God must ever go hand-in-hand with a God-consecrated life. There is no greater horror in the sight of God than prayer which irreconcilably contradicts the inward and outward life. Cf. Pro_28:9; Psa_34:16-17.
4. The Christian is permitted, to pray also for outward things, provided it be done in the spirit of absolute submission and resignation to the Divine Will, to the glory of His name and in the name of Christ. The rule Mat_6:33, applies also here. If this mind is wanting, prayer will not be followed by peace filling the heart, and this very want of true peace consequent upon prayer is an intimation that we need not expect the fulfilment of the desire uttered by us in prayer. Cf. Conférences sur la prière, par J. Martin, Paris, 1849, p. 3 etc.
5. Prayer is evil first respect of the object, if we pray for some vain, unprofitable or foolish thing; secondly in consideration of the disposition, if we pray in a vain, covetous and boisterous spirit, that is without submission and filial trust, without leaving every thing at the disposal of God. Heubner.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The disputes and quarrels in the Christian Church—a great proof how little the wisdom which is from above is understood and practised, Jam_3:16.—Every sensual and selfish lust which is not killed in the heart of the Christian, sooner or later must work disastrously to the detriment of fraternal communion.—Disappointed hopes I should not fill us with bitterness and hatred against one another, but rather prompt us to humility and believing, confiding prayer.—It is not sufficient to pray only, all depends upon the manner how we pray and in what spirit.—God not a God of disorder, but a God of peace in all churches of the saints, cf. 1Co_14:33.—The history of prayers that have not been heard. Examples: Deu_3:26; Joh_11:3-6; 2Co_12:8-9 etc.—Prayer the true thermometer of the spiritual life—He who prays illy need not expect more than he who prays not at all.—What our Lord said to Salome applies to many a praying man, Mat_20:22.—In prayer we must not think first and foremost of ourselves, but chiefly of the glory of God and the welfare of our neighbour.—A Christian prays not that he may bend the will of God according to his will, but in order that he may shape his will according to God’s.—No prayer without work, no work without prayer.—
By caring and by fretting,
By agony and fear,
There is of God no getting,
But prayer He will hear.
Mit Sorgen und mit Grämen
Und mit selbsteigner Pein,
Lässt Gott sich gar nichts nehmen,
Es muss erbeten sein. cf. Psa_127:1-2.
Starke:—Even with believers Satan attempts to bring about all manner of evil. He sows tares among the wheat, Mat_13:25.
Langii, Op.:—The wars of the world are nothing but outbreaks of the evil heart, in which the evil lusts fight against God, against man and also among themselves, Psa_140:3.
Cramer:—Many a man rakes and scrapes and strives to get everything for his own use to no purpose, and labours tooth and nail but only hinders himself therewith.
Quesnel:—It is a great mercy of God not to hear men if they offer unjust prayers, Psa_66:18.
Stier:—It is natural that the heathen, before Christ teaches them peace, break the battle-bow (Zec_9:10) and live fighting and warring with one another; but where Christendom knows and confesses the name of God, peace ought surely to be there. To be sure, this so-called Christendom upon earth, inclosing (not contrary to the Divine purpose) as a net many nations, is far from being the Church of Saints, the Body of the Lord, animated and occupied by His Spirit; hence to this day bloody wars are waged even between Christian nations, and it cannot be otherwise because of righteousness against unrighteousness; the vigorous conduct of such wars is the Christian duty of rulers and ruled (kings and subjects) in the right place to which the sword put by God into hands [of lawful authority—M.] belongs. Moreover the good fight of faith must go on among Christian nations, states and churches, the sword of the spirit must be drawn against whatever is unchristian and ungodly, just as every holy man must fight for peace with the. devil and with the world. But James makes no reference whatever to this good fight; he doubtless includes pure zeal for the truth in love, directed against all unrighteousness and whatever belong thereto in word or deed, in the peace in which the fruit of righteousness should be sown (Jam_3:18). But for all, enough remains for this cutting question: “Whence are wars and whence are fightings among you, quarrelling and discord in word and deed among brethren and members of the Church of God, evil wars on a small scale like those without among the nations?”
Jakobi:—Do not even desire that which cannot benefit thee in things pertaining to God, and whatever thou dost desire, desire it only in as far as it furthers thy eternal salvation. But if thou prayest only in order to have and to enjoy, if thou openest communication with God only in order to receive or as it were to extort from Him worldly gifts, thou dost indeed draw nigh to Him with thy mouth and serve Him with thy lips, but thy heart is far from Him.
Neander:—James like Paul here presupposes an inward conflict in man, the conflict between flesh and spirit. As Paul calls the powers of evil the law in the members, because the body is the outward manifestation of man and because the dominion of sinful desires exhibits itself on and in the body, so James speaks of the lusts that war in the members.
Viedebandt:—The real trouble-states (Störenfriede=disturbers of peace) in the world are seated deep in the hearts of men—the worldly lusts.—Peace among men is the consequence of peace in men.—Who carries his point among men by quarrelling, is always the loser no matter how much he may gain besides, for he loses with God.—There is relatively little praying in the world and besides, much of that little is evil praying.—Most men desire the gifts of God, not God Himself.—Envy seeks quarrel and quarrel brings woe.—We find often many obstacles in the way by our desires. Why? Because self-will and pride present obstacles to Divine help.
Lisco:—The sinful lusts.—The dissensions of worldly life.—The nature and consequence of lusts.
Porubszky:—The deepest root of all strife.
[Jam_4:1. Harmony ought to reign in the members (ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν. The word μέλος signifies 1. a limb, a member; 2. a song and then the music to which a song is set, an air, a tune, a melody. ἐν μέλει, in tune, harmoniously. The Greek word μέλος would suggest the double idea of member and harmony to a Greek ear and I cannot but consider the selection of the word to have contemplated such an allusion), but now they exhibit strife and discord, the confusion of the camp and the violence of an armed soldiery. The lusts act the part of soldiers (στρατευομένων), they are not only encamped within us and foraging (Alford), but they are acting the part of soldiers, engaging in all the offices of military service.—M.].
[1. φονεύετε. This was especially true of those bands of λῃσταὶ, sicarii, robbers and assassins, who, under the name of zealots, infested Jewish society at this time, and at last made the Temple itself a den of assassins. See Mat_21:13. Evidences of the blood-thirsty spirit of rage, which now like a fiend possessed the heart of large numbers of the people, may be seen in the murderous plots and violent and frequent outbreaks at this period, mentioned in Josephus (see below), and in the Gospel and Acts, such as that of Barabbas (Mat_27:16; Joh_18:40), and of Judas of Galilee, and Theudas (Act_5:36), and the Egyptian (Act_21:38), and the conspiracy against St. Paul (Act_23:12-14). There may also be a reference here to the cry of the multitude assembled from all parts of the Jewish dispersions at the Passover, “Crucify Him” (Mat_15:13-14). Wordsworth.—M.].
[Whitby cites the following passages from Josephus. Bell. Judges 4, 10; Judges 2, 1; Antiq. 18, 1; Bell. Jud. 2, 23; 7, 31; I. 405.—M.].
Footnotes:
[1] Jam_4:1. A. B. C. Cod Sin. and al. insert a second πόθεν.
Lange: Whence then [are] wars and whence fightings among you? Is it not hence: from your lusts, which [especially] wage war in your members.
[Whence are …? Are they not …—M.]
[2] Jam_4:2. Rec. and some minuscules read δὲ after ἔχετε. A. B. G. K. οὐκ ἔχετε; C. Cod. Sin. Vulg. Griesbach and al. καὶ οὐκ ἔχετε.
Lange: Ye desire it and ye have it not, ye murder and ye strive and ye cannot obtain it; ye fight and ye make war, and ye get it not, because ye ask not.
[Ye desire and ye have not: ye commit murder and ye envy, and are not able to obtain; ye fight and make war, and ye have not, because ye ask not.—M.]
[3] Jam_4:3. Notice the interchange of αἰτεῖτε and αἰτεῖσθε. Cod. Sin. intensifies the last word of this sentence into καταδαπ.
Lange: Ye ask and receive it not, because ye ask illy [desirable in your interest] that ye may waste it in your lusts.
[ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your lusts.—M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–3 Ye lust--A different Greek word from that in Jam…
Ye lust--A different Greek word from that in Jam 4:1. "Ye desire"; literally, "ye set your mind (or heart) on" an object.
have not--The lust of desire does not ensure the actual possession. Hence "ye kill" (not as Margin, without any old authority, "envy") to ensure possession. Not probably in the case of professing Christians of that day in a literal sense, but "kill and envy" (as the Greek for "desire to have" should be translated), that is, harass and oppress through envy [DRUSIUS]. Compare Zac 11:5, "slay"; through envy, hate, and desire to get out of your way, and so are "murderers" in God's eyes [ESTIUS]. If literal murder [ALFORD] were meant, I do not think it would occur so early in the series; nor had Christians then as yet reached so open criminality. In the Spirit's application of the passage to all ages, literal killing is included, flowing from the desire to possess so David and Ahab. There is a climax: "Ye desire," the individual lust for an object; "ye kill and envy," the feeling and action of individuals against individuals; "ye fight and war," the action of many against many.
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ye have not, because ye ask not--God promises to those who pray, not to those who fight. The petition of the lustful, murderous, and contentious is not recognized by God as prayer. If ye prayed, there would be no "wars and fightings." Thus this last clause is an answer to the question, Jam 4:1, "Whence come wars and fightings?"
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–3 III. OUTSIDE THE CHRISTIAN SYNAGOGUE—PUBLIC TURBULENCE AND WARS, IRREVERENCE,…
III. OUTSIDE THE CHRISTIAN SYNAGOGUE—PUBLIC TURBULENCE AND WARS, IRREVERENCE, AND OPPRESSIVE WEALTH, Jas_4:1 to Jas_5:11.
1. Wars and public commotions—Whence come they? What the remedy? Jas_4:1-10.
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1. Whence… wars—Passing beyond the synagogue, Christian or Jewish, our apostle extends his address to the people of the twelve tribes. The great body of modern commentators, such as Stier, Bengel, De Wette, Huther, and Alford have interpreted these wars as strifes in Churches, or even between Christian teachers! This has arisen from their not discriminating the various classes addressed by the epistle. Limiting all the epistle to the Christian body, they are obliged either to impute to the apostolic Church enormities of which it was not supposably guilty, or else very arbitrarily to give a figurative meaning to the terms. The class plainly enough addressed is the Jews who, in those troublous times, acted the part of brigands—robbed, murdered, skirmished in armed bands, and yet held themselves as the people of God, doing him service. The passage is a picture of the times described in our vol. iii, pp. 233-235.
Huther thus approvingly quotes Laurentius as saying: “The apostle speaks, not concerning wars and slaughters;” which are precisely what he does speak about; “but concerning mutual dissensions, lawsuits, scoldings, and contentions.” From such an exegesis we are obliged to dissent, and fall back, with Grotius, and recognise a clear view of the Jewish age.
First, it seems entirely inadmissible to interpret such a series of terms as wars, battles, kill, fight, cleanse hands, sinners, doubleminded, of the Christian body. These phrases, also, stand in strong contrast with the terms of Jas_4:11-12, where brethren are directly addressed, and where the faults corrected are not blood and murder, but censorious speaking.
Second, even these interpreters admit that the dread apostrophe to the oppressive rich in first paragraph of next chapter is not addressed to Christians. But the two passages are precisely parallel. One addresses the disturbers of public peace, the other the oppressors of the poor, especially poor Christians. It would be just as easy, by a forced transformation of the strong terms into figures, to make the latter passage an address to the Church as the former.
Third, the two passages are also parallel in the fact that each is followed by a passage in a very different tone addressed to the Church. As the denunciations Jas_4:1-10 are parallel to the denunciations of Jas_5:6, so is the gentle address to the Church in Jas_4:11-12, parallel to the gentle address to the Church in Jas_5:7-10, and following. In both cases there is a bold appeal to the wicked world, followed by a fraternal appeal to the holy, yet not faultless, Church.
Fightings—Battles, specific acts of war. The preferred reading repeats the whence for vividness; whence come wars? whence battles?
Lusts—Not the usual Greek word for lusts, but the word for pleasures, or delights. The term alludes to that bad delight or gratification, existing in the fierceness of strife, prompting to repetition.
That war—There is an inward war, prompting to outward. The bloody public contests were deeply based upon the inward depravities, the cupidities, ambitions, revenges, lusts, mingled with the fiery patriotisms and religions kindled to fanaticism. Thence came assassinations, rapines, conflagrations, finally resulting in the dissolution of society, and the desolation of the land swept of its inhabitants.
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The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Ch. Jas_4:1-7. God’s giving and the World’s getting
Ch. Jas_4:1-7. God’s giving and the World’s getting
1. whence come wars and fightings among you?…] One source of discord had been touched in the “Be not many masters” of Chap. Jas_3:1. Sectarianism and all its kindred evils were destructive of peace, and therefore of all true wisdom. Another besetting sin of the race which St James addressed, from which indeed no race or nation is exempt, now comes in view. “Wars,” protracted or wide-spread disputes: “fighting,” the conflicts and skirmishes of daily life, which make up the campaign,—“What do they come from?” the writer asks, and then makes answer to himself. A question so like in form to this as to suggest the thought that it must be a conscious reproduction, is found in the Epistle of Clement of Rome (c. 45).
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even of your lusts that war in your members? Literally, from your pleasures. The noun is used as nearly equivalent to “desires.” Common as the word “pleasure” was in all Greek ethical writers, it is comparatively rare in the New Testament. In the Gospels it meets us in Luk_8:14, and with much the same sense as in this passage. These “lusts” or “pleasures” are, the next word tells us, the hosts that carry on the conflict and perpetuate the warfare. They make our “members,” each organ of sense or action, their camping ground and field of battle. Hence, to extend the metaphor one step further, as St Peter extends it, they “war against the soul” (1Pe_2:11).
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Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–2 (1) From whence come wars . . .?—More correctly…
(1) From whence come wars . . .?—More correctly thus. Whence are wars, and whence fightings among you? The perfect peace above, capable, moreover, in some ways, of commencement here below, dwelt upon at the close of James 3, has by inevitable reaction led the Apostle to speak suddenly, almost fiercely, of the existing state of things. He traces the conflict raging around him to the fount and origin of evil within.
Come they not . . .—Translate, come they not hence, even from your lusts warring in your members? The term is really pleasures, but in an evil sense, and therefore “lusts.” “The desires of various sorts of pleasures are,” says Bishop Moberly, “like soldiers in the devil’s army, posted and picketed all over us, in the hope of winning our members, and so ourselves, back to his allegiance, which we have renounced in our baptism.” St. Peter (1Pe_2:11) thus writes in the same strain of “fleshly lusts, which war against the soul”; and St. Paul knew also of this bitter strife in man, if not actually in himself, and could “see another law” in his members—the natural tendency of the flesh—“warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which is in his members” (Rom_7:23). See also Note on 2Co_12:7.
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Happily the Christian philosopher understands this; and with the very cry of wretchedness, “Who shall deliver me?” can answer, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom_7:24-25). But the burden of this hateful depravity drove of old men like Lucretius to suicide rather than endurance; and its mantle of despair is on all the religions of India at the present time—matter itself being held to be evil, and eternal.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Vers. 1-12. REBUKE OF QUARRELS ARISING FROM PRIDE AND…
Vers. 1-12. REBUKE OF QUARRELS ARISING FROM PRIDE AND GREED. A terribly sadden transition from the "peace" with which James 3. closed.
Whence wars and whence fightings among you? The second "whence" (poqen) is omitted in the Received Text, after K, L, Syriac, and Vulgate; but it is supported by a, A, B, C, the Coptic, and Old Latin.
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Wars... fightings (polemoi...macai). To what is the reference? Macai occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in (2Co_7:5, "Without were fightings, within were fears;" and (2Ti_2:23; lmoi, (Tit_3:9, in both of which passages it refers to disputes and questions. It is easy, therefore, to give it the same meaning here. Po) elsewhere in the New Testament, as in the LXX, is always used of actual warfare. In behalf of its secondary meaning, "contention," Grimm ("Lexicon of New Testament Greek") appeals to Sophocles, "Electra," 1. 219, and Plato, "Phaed.," p. 66, c. But it is better justified by Clement of Rome, Ina ti ereiv kai qumoi kaiai kaismata polemov te ejn uJin a passage which has almost the nature of a commentary upon St. Jamess language. There is then no need to seek an explanation of the passage in the outbreaks and insurrections which were so painfully common among the Jews. Lusts (hJdonwn); R.V, "pleasures." "An unusual sense of hJdonai, hardly distinguishable from ejpiqumiai, in fact taken up by ejpiqumeite" (Alford). With the expression, "that war in your members," comp. 1Pe_2:11, Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.
Ver 1.
The origin of strife sad conflict to be sought in selfish lust.
Our "members" are the field of battle in which, or rather the instruments with which, the conflict is fought; and all the while they are really warring against the soul. (1Pe_2:11) The conflict, therefore, is a suicidal one.
HOMILIES BY C. JERDAN. Vers. 1-3.
Wars and fightings.
Gazing upon the fair portraiture of the heavenly wisdom with which Jas 3 closes, we perhaps feel as if we could make tabernacles for ourselves inits peaceful presence, that we might continue always to contemplate its beauty. Immediately, however, James brings us down again from the holy mount into the quarrelsome and murderous world. He points us to the "wars" and "fightings" that rage throughout the human family. He returns to the bitter jealousy and faction" that eat like a gangrene into the heart of the Christian Church. For the congregations which the apostles themselves formed were tainted with the same impurities which cling to the Church in our own time.
I THE PREVALENCE OF STRIFE AMONG CHRISTIANS. (Ver. 1) In the believing communities of" the Dispersion" there were many elements of discord. The time was one of political agitation and of social turbulence. Within the Churches there were sometimes bitter theological disputes. (Jas 3) And in private life these Jewish Christians were largely giving themselves up to the besetting sin, not only of Hebrew nature, but of human nature; they struggled for material self-aggrandizement, and in doing so fell into violent mutual conflict. But do not quarrels and controversies of the same kind rage still? Christian nations go to war with one another. Employers and workmen array themselves against each other in hostile camps. Churches cherish within their bosoms the viper of sectarianism. Fellow-believers belonging to the same congregation cease to be on speaking terms with one another, and perhaps indulge in mutual backbiting. How sad to contemplate the long "wars" waged in hearts which should love as brethren, and to witness those outward "fightings" which are their inevitable outcome!
II THE ORIGIN OF STRIFE. (Vers. 1, 2.) "Whence" comes it? asks James; and he appeals in his answer to the consciences of his readers. The source of strife is in the evil desires of the heart. Usually, it is true, all wars and fightings are traced no further than to some outward cause. One nation attacks another professedly to maintain the country"s honor, or perhaps to rectify an unscientific frontier. Trade strikes and locks-out are to be explained by an unsatisfactory condition of the labor market. Ecclesiastical contentions are all alike justified by some assumed necessity in the interests of truth, and sometimes also by a misinterpretation of the words, "first pure, then peaceable". (Jam_3:17) And the personal quarrels that break out among individual Christians are sure to be ascribed to severe and gratuitous provocation. But here, true to his character as the apostle of reality, James sweeps away these excuses as so many dusty cobwebs. He drags out into the blaze of gospel light the one true origin of strife. "Wars" and fightings" have their fountain within the soul, and not without. They come "of your pleasures," i.e. of the cravings of your carnal hearts. it is royal pride, or the lust of power, or sometimes the mischievous impatience of an idle army, that "lets slip the dogs of war" between nations. It is avarice and envy that foment the social strife between capital and labor. It is the spirit of Diotrephes that produces the evils of sectarianism. It is the wild and selfish passions of the natural heart that stir up the animosities and conflicts of private life. These passions "war in your members;" issuing from the citadel of "Mansoul," they pitch their camp in the organs of sense and action. There they not only "war against" the regenerated nature, (1Pe_2:11) and against one another, but against one"s neighbor, clamouring for gratification at the expense of his rights and his welfare. This truth is further expanded in ver. 2, and in a way which recalls Jam_1:14, Jam_1:15; or which suggests the analysis of sin given by Thomas a Kempis: "Primo occurrit menti simplex cogitatio; deinde fortis imaginatio; postea delectatio et motus pravus et assensio." The first stage is that of unreasonably desiring something which we have not. The second is that of murderously envying those whose possessions we covet cherishing such feelings as David did towards Uriah the Hittite, or Ahab towards Naboth. The third stage is that of open contention and discord fight and war." But common to all the stages is the consciousness of want; and at the end of each, as ver. 2 reminds us, this consciousness becomes further intensified. Ye "have not;" "cannot obtain;" "ye have not," even after all your fierce strivings. The war-spirit, therefore, isgenerated by that unrest of the soul which only the God of peace can remove. It has its source in that devouring hunger of the heart which only the bread of God can appease. And to cure it we must ascertain what the great nature of man needs, in order to make him restful and happy.
III THE REMEDY FOR STRIFE. (Vers. 2, 3.) It lies in prayer. If we would have our nature restored to restfulness, we must realize our dependence upon God. To struggle after the world in our own strength will tend only to foster the war-spirit within us. Perhaps we have not hitherto directly consulted the Lord about our worldly affairs. If not, let us begin to do so now. Or perhaps we have "asked amiss," in praying chiefly for what would gratify only the lower elements of our nature, or requesting blessings with a view to certain uses of them which would not bear to be mentioned before his throne. We cannot e.g. expect God to answer the prayer that our worldly business may prosper, if we secretly resolve to employ what success he sends in catering for self glorification. The things that we ask must be what we need for the Lord"s service; and we must honestly purpose so to use them. The cultivation of the true spirit of devotion is the way to contentment with our lot in life. We shall secure peace among the powers and passions of the heart, if we "seek first our Father"s kingdom and his righteousness." Regular soul-converse with God will exorcise the demons of discord, and call into exercise the gracious affections of faith, submission, gratitude, and peace.
LESSONS.
1. The wickedness of the war-spirit.
2. The defilement and degradation which result from allowing selfish motives to govern the heart.
3. The blessedness of making God our Portion, and of resting contented with our allotted share of temporal good.
4. The duty of forgiving our enemies, and of promoting peace in the Church and in society. C.J.
HOMILIES BY T.F. LOCKYER
Vers. 1-10.
War or peace?
He has just been speaking of peace. But this leads him to survey the actual state of things: disputes, strifes, murders. (For condition of Jewish society at this time, see Plumptre"s notes: rife with atrocities.") And he will ascend to the origin of them. Whence come they? They proceed from the restlessness of the unregenerate nature, seeking, but seeking in vain, its satisfaction in the world. These two topics, then, are introduced to us: dissatisfaction with the world; satisfaction in God.
I DISSATISFACTION WITH THE WORLD. Man"s nature consists of higher and lower, spiritual and psychical, the one designed by God to govern and regulate the other. But without such governance the desires of the lower life are riotous and rampant, and the members of the ungoverned man are the battle-ground for base cravings. And from the man himself the battle is projected into the world.
1. But what is the result of this unbridled craving for the world? A nature that is never satisfied.
(1) Baffled desires and efforts towards the world. Ever more and more inflamed, for there is a certain infiniteness in man"s cravings; ever more and more disappointed, for there is a palling finiteness in the world towards which man"s infinite cravings go forth.
(2) The non-existence of desires towards God, who alone can satisfy. "Ye ask not" (ver. 2); or, "Ye ask amiss;" not sincerely for God"s blessing itself, but merely for the selfish gratification of worldly desires (ver. 3).
2. And what the guilt of this condition? The guilt of absolute ungodliness!
(1) The world-desires themselves, unbridled and lawless as they are, are evidence of divorce from God (ver. 4).
(2) The spirit of envy which they provoke is absolutely opposed to God (ver. 5). Yes, it is from below.
II SATISFACTION IN GOD. But, it may be said, we are naturally so prone to sin; we covet, we envy, as being to the manner born. Yes, truly; and only God"s grace can suffice. But God"s grace can suffice, and it is abundantly given (ver. 6).
1. Let us notice the terms upon which this grace is given.
(1) Towards God: humility (ver. 10), and submission (ver. 7).
(2) Towards the tempter: resistance (ver. 7).
(3) Towards sin: repentance
(a) of the will cleansing the hands and purifying the heart (ver. 8);
(b) of the feelings (ver. 9).
(4) Towards God, again: drawing nigh, as to a Refuge (ver. 8).
2. And the results of this craving after God?
(1) God"s nearness to man (ver. 8; so. (Joh_1:51 Joh_17:22, Joh_17:23)
(2) Man"s exaltation to God (ver. 10).
So, virtually, in the ascension of Christ; so actually by-and-by. (Joh_14:3) The same old war in the members, from the beginning until now. It must be put down by a more righteous war. A war which demands all the abounding grace of God. Let us learn, then, sternness towards sin; strong trust towards God. And so he will give the victory. T.F.L.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v1 From whence come wars and fightings?
Jam_4:1-3
From whence come wars and fightings?
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Wars and fighting--whence they proceed
I. THE QUESTION PROPOSED (Jam_4:1). We have no very particular information as to the nature of these contests, the parties by whom they were waged, or the matters to which they related. Able interpreters have connected them with the civil, political conflicts which agitated the Jewish people at this period of their history, and prepared the way for the memorable destruction which soon came on them at the hands of the victorious Romans. But it would appear, from what is added, that they were rather struggles about ordinary temporal affairs--about influence, reputation, position, and especially property, money, gains--what more than once the apostle calls filthy lucre. What they sought was prosperity of that earthly kind; and all striving to secure it they got into collision--they envied, jostled, assailed, injured one another. Alas! this state of things has not been confined to the early age, nor to Jewish converts. What wars and fightings still among the members of the Church! Oh, what controversies and contentions! What angry passions, bitter rivalries, furious contests among the professed disciples of the same Master, the adherents of that gospel which is all animated with love, and pregnant with peace!
II. THE ANSWER GIVEN.
1. The prevalence of lust. And what were these lusts? Just those which are most characteristic of human nature as fallen, and the working of which we see continually around us in the world. There was pride, a high, inordinate opinion of themselves, of their own merits and claims, leading them to aim at sell-exaltation, at authority, pre-eminence--envy, grudging at the prosperity of others, prompting efforts to pull them down and climb into their places--avarice, covetousness, the love of money, the desire to be rich, stirring up all kinds of evil passions, and giving rise to crooked designs and plots of every description. These and such like are always the true cause of our wars and fightings. No doubt the world allures, the devil tempts--no doubt there are many incitements and influences at work all around by which Christians are more or less affected. But what gives them their power? The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. It is thronged with lusts, it is inflammable, and hence the spark falling on it is enough to wrap it in the flames of devouring passion. Which war in your members. These are the bodily organs, and also the mental faculties, especially the former. The lusts are attached to them, connected with them, as the instruments by which they work, through which they come into active and open manifestation. Ye lust, and have not--have not what you so strongly and irregularly desire. Hew often are those who give way to such covetous cravings doomed to bitter disappointment! What the parties had not in this instance were those worldly gains and other advantages on which their hearts were set, and for which they strained and struggled. We have now a farther step, and a terrible one, taken under the influence of this lust. Ye kill, and desire to have. Ye kill--that is, ye murder. It is possible to kill in other ways than by dealing a fatal blow, giving the poisonous draught, or committing any deed by which a charge of murder could be substantiated. By envious rivalries and bitter animosities by false accusations and cruel persecutions--we may wound the spirit, weaken the strength, and shorten the days ofour fellow creatures. We may as truly take away the life as if we used some lethal weapon for the purpose. And desire to have--desire in an eager, even an envious manner, as the words signifies; for this was what dictated the murder spoken of, and, remaining after its perpetration, sought, through the medium of it, the coveted object or pleasure. And cannot obtain. No; not even after employing such dreadful means for the purpose. Ye get not the satisfaction ye craved and expected--often not so much as the thing in which ye looked for that satisfaction. How frequently does this happen! Under the influence of insatiable cravings, men silence the voice of conscience, set at nought the restraints of law, trample on honour, principle, life itself; and, after all, either miss what they dare and sacrifice so much for, or get it only to find that what they imagined would be sweet, is utterly insipid, if not intensely bitter. They lose their pains; their killing, while a crime, proves also a mistake.
2. The neglect or abuse of prayer. They sought not from God the blessings they were so anxious to obtain. Had they taken their requests to God a twofold result would have ensued. Their immoderate desires had been checked, abated--the bringing of them into contact with His holy presence must have had a rectifying influence. Then, so far as lawful, as for their own good and the Divine glory, their petition had been granted. Thus their wars and fightings would have been prevented, their evil tendencies would have been repressed, and the disastrous effects they produced have been prevented. But some might repel the charge and say, We do ask. The apostle anticipates such a defence, and so proceeds, Ye ask and receive not. How does that happen? Does it not contradict the explanation of the not having which had now been presented? Does it not run directly in opposition to the Lords express promise, Ask, and ye shall receive? No; for he adds, assigning the reason of the failure--Because ye ask amiss, badly, with evil intent. Ye do it in a spirit and for a purpose that are not good, but evil. It is not forbidden to seek temporal gains; but they did it not to apply them to proper objects, but to expend them in selfish, if not impure gratifications. Nothing is more common. Why, we may even plead for spiritual blessings in the same manner. We may supplicate wisdom, not to glorify God by it, but to exalt ourselves--not to benefit our brethren by it, but to make it conduce to our own pride and importance. We may ask pardon merely for the safety it involves, for the comfort it brings, from a regard to ease and enjoyment, and not to any higher and holier purpose. We may make grace the minister of sin, and value it for the release from restraint--the liberty to live as we please which it is supposed to confer. Of course, such prayers are not answered. They are an insult to the Majesty of heaven. They are a profanation of the Holiest. (John Adam.)
Serious reflections on war
I. This subject naturally leads us to reflect upon THE FALLEN, DEGENERATE STATE OF HUMAN NATURE. What is this world but a field of battle? What is the history of nations, from their first rise to the present day, but a tragical story of contests, struggles for dominion, encroachments upon the possessions of others?
II. This subject may naturally lead us to reflect upon THE JUST RESENTSIENTS OF GOD AGAINST THE SIN OF MAN. As innocent creatures, under the influence of universal benevolence, would not injure one another, or fly to war, so God would not suffer the calamities of war to fall upon them because they would not deserve it. But alas! mankind have revolted from God, and He employs them to avenge His quarrel and do the part of executioners upon one another.
III. The consideration of war, as proceeding from the lusts of men, may excite us to THE MOST ZEALOUS ENDEAVOURS, IN OUR RESPECTIVE CHARACTERS, TO PROMOTE A REFORMATION. Let our lives be a loud testimony against the wickedness of the times; and a living recommendation of despised religion.
IV. The consideration of war as proceeding from the lusts of men, may make us sensible of our NEED OF AN OUTPOURING OF THE DIVINE SPIRIT. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, are mentioned by St. Paul as the fruit of the Spirit, because the Spirit alone is the author of them. And if these dispositions were predominant in the world, what a calm, pacific region would it be, undisturbed with the hurricanes of human passions.
V. The consideration of the present commotions among the kingdoms of the world may CARRY OUR THOUGHTS FORWARD to that happy period which our religion teaches us to hope for, when the kingdom of Christ, the Prince of Peace, shall be extended over the world, and His benign, pacific religion shall be propagated among all nations. Conclusion:
1. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.
2. Pray without ceasing. (S. Davies, M. A.)
Contention in a community
1. Lust is the makebait in a community. Covetousness, pride, and ambition make men injurious and insolent.
(1) Covetousness maketh us to contend with those that have anything that we covet, as Ahab with Naboth.
(2) Pride is the cockatrice egg that discloseth the fiery flying serpent Pro_13:10).
(3) Ambition. Diotrephes loving the pre-eminence disturbed the Churches of Asia (3Jn_1:10).
(4) Envy. Abraham and Lots herdsmen fell out (Gen_13:7).
2. When evils abound in a place it is good to look after the rise and cause of them. Men engage in a heat, and do not know wherefore: usually lust is at the bottom; the sight of the cause will shame us.
3. Lust is a tyrant that warreth in the soul, and warreth against the soul.
(1) It warreth in the soul; it abuseth your affections, to carry on the rebellion against heaven (Gal_5:17).
(2) It warreth against the soul (1Pe_2:11). (T. Manton.)
Lusts the causes of strife
Wars and fightings are not to be understood literally. St. James is referring to private quarrels and law-suits, social rivalries and factions, and religious controversies. The subject-matter of these disputes and contentions is not indicated because that is not what is denounced. It is not for having differences about this or that, whether rights of property, or posts of honour, or ecclesiastical questions, that St. James rebukes them, but for the rancorous, greedy, and worldly spirit in which their disputes are conducted. Evidently the lust of possession is among the things which produce the contentions. Jewish appetite for wealth is at work among them. Whence wars, and whence fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures which war in your members? By a common transposition, St. James, in answering his own question, puts the pleasures which excite and gratify the lusts instead of the lusts themselves, in much the same way as we use drink for intemperance, and gold for avarice. These lusts for pleasures have their quarters or camp in the members of our body--i.e., in the sensual part of mans nature. But they are there, not to rest, but to make war, to go after, and seize, and take for a prey that which has roused them from their quietude and set them in motion. There the picture, as drawn by St. James, ends. St. Paul carries it a stage farther (Rom_7:23). St. Paul does the 1Pe_2:11). In the Phaedo of Plato
(66, 67) there is a beautiful passage which presents some striking coincidences with the words of St. James. Wars, and factions, and fightings have no other source than the body and its lusts. For it is for the getting of wealth that all our wars arise, and we are compelled to get wealth because of our body, to whose service we are slaves; and in consequence we have no leisure for philosophy because of all these things. And the worst of all is that if we get any leisure from it, and turn to some question, in the midst of our inquiries the body is everywhere coming in, introducing turmoil and confusion, and bewildering us, so that by it we are prevented from seeing the truth. But, indeed, it has been proved to us that if we are ever to have pure knowledge of anything we must get rid of the body, and with the soul by itself must behold things by themselves. Then, it would seem, we shall obtain the wisdom which we desire, and of which we say that we are lovers; when we are dead, as the argument shows, but in this life not. For if it be impossible while we are in the body to have pure knowledge of anything, then of two things one--either knowledge is not to be obtained at all, or after we are dead; for then the soul will be by itself, apart from the body, but before that not. And in this life, it would seem, we shall make the nearest approach to knowledge if we have no communication or fellowship whatever with the body, beyond what necessity compels, and are not filled with its nature, but remain pure from its taint until God Himself shall set us free. And in this way shall we be pure, being delivered from the foolishness of the body, and shall be with other like souls, and shall know of ourselves all that is clear and cloudless, and that is perhaps all one with the truth. Plato and St. James are entirely agreed in holding that wars and fightings are caused by the lusts that have their seat in the body, and that this condition of fightings without, and lusts within, is quite incompatible with the possession of heavenly wisdom. But there the agreement between them ceases. The conclusion which Plato arrives at is that the philosopher must, so far as is possible, neglect and excommunicate his body, as an intolerable source of corruption, yearning for the time when death shall set him free from the burden of waiting upon this obstacle between his soul and the truth. Plato has no idea that the body may be sanctified here and glorified hereafter; he regards it simply as a necessary evil, which may be minimised by watchfulness, but which can in no way be turned into a blessing. The blessing will come when the body is annihilated by death. St. James, on the contrary, exhorts us to cut ourselves off, not from the body, but from friendship with the world. Even in this life the wisdom that is from above is attainable, and where that has found a home factions and fightings cease. When the passions cease to war those who have hitherto been swayed by their passions will cease to war also. (A. Plummer, D. D.)
Warrior lusts
The word translated lusts is used to express the pleasure of the senses, and hence sometimes signifies strong desire for such gratification. In this picturesque sentence, these are represented as warriors spreading themselves through the members, seizing the body as the instrument for the accomplishing of their designs and the gaining of their ends. It is the desire for greater territories, larger incomes, more splendour, wider indulgence in physical pleasures, greater gratification of their pride and ambition, which lead kings to war. Every war has begun in sin. It is so in religious circles. The pride of opinion, the love of rule, the enjoyment of more renown for numbers and wealth and influence, have led sects and Churches into all the persecution and so-called religious wars which have disgraced the cause of truth, and discouraged the aspirations of the good, and increased the infidelity of the world. (C. F. Deems, D. D.)
War
But is there nothing to be said in favour of war? There is one thing often said of it--namely, that, in spite of its horror, and folly, and wickedness, it evokes courage, magnanimity, heroism, self-sacrifice. There has been much eloquence expended on this theme; but good Dr. Johnson said all that was necessary on the matter long ago. Boswell writes: Dr. Johnson laughed at Lord Kamess opinion that war was a good thing occasionally, as so much valour and virtue were exhibited in it. A fire, said the Doctor, might as well be considered a good thing. There are the bravery and address of the firemen in extinguishing it; there is much humanity exerted in saving the lives and properties of the poor sufferers. Yet, after all this, who can say that a fire is a good thing? But what is the Christian principle about war? For our religion, if it is good for anything, must be good for everything; it must have an authoritative word on this matter. Murder is not less murder because a man puts on a red coat to do it in; it is not less murder because a thousand go out to do it together. There are no earthly orders which may countermand the commandment of God. In the first two centuries of the Christian Church this was so well understood that Celsus, in his attack upon Christianity, says that the State received no help in war from the Christians, and that, if all men were to follow their example, the sovereign would be deserted and the world would fall into the hands of the barbarians. To which Origen answered as follows
The question is--What would happen if the Romans should be persuaded to adopt the principles of the Christians?… This is my answer--We say that if two of us shall agree on earth as touching anything thatthey shall ask, it shall be done for them by the Father who is in heaven. What, then, are we to expect, if not only a very few should agree, as at present, but the whole empire of Rome? They would pray to the Word, who of old said to the Hebrews, when pursued by the Egyptians, The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. What Origen and other great teachers said many Christians heeded, and there were men who refused to enter the army, although the penalty of their refusal was death. The Quaker-like sentiment and principle of the Church was changed when the Church was established and protected by Constantine, and from various causes, into which we need not enter, since the discussion would have a somewhat academic tinge, and we are concerned with a practical question. In the Middle Ages soldiering became more reputable than ever through the rise of the Mohammedan power and the institution of chivalry. And for all practical purposes Christendom is still unchristian so far as war is concerned. That is true in spite of all the understandings about the illegitimacy of certain materials and methods, in spite of all the hospital staff and the nurses, and the other efforts to palliate the horrors of sweeping and scientific murder. (J. A. Hamilton.)
Mens love of stride
Lord Palmerston, in a short letter to Mr. Cobden, said, Man is a fighting and quarrelling animal. (Justin McCarthy.)
Peace
Peace among men is the consequence of peace in men. (Viedebandt.)
Desire
Desires increase with acquisition; every step a man advances brings something within his view which he did not see before, and which, as soon as he sees it he begins to want. Where necessity ends, curiosity begins; and no sooner are we supplied with everything that nature can demand than we contrive artificial appetites. (Dr. Johnson,.)
Ye lust and have not
Disappointed lust
1. Lustings are astrally disappointed. God loveth to cross desires when they are inordinate; His hand is straitened when our desires are enlarged.
(1) Sometimes in mercy (Hos_2:7). Prosperous and successful wickedness encourageth a man to go on in that way; some rubs are an advantage.
(2) Sometimes in judgment, that He may torment men by their own lusts; their desires prove their just torture. The blood heated by intemperance, and the heart enlarged by desire, are both of them sins that bring with them their own punishment, especially when they meet with disappointment. Learn, then, that when the heart is too much set upon anything, it is the ready way to miss it. When you forget to subject your desires to Gods will, you shall understand the sovereignty of it. Be not always troubled when you cannot have your will; you have cause to bless God. It is a mercy when carnal desires are disappointed; say as David (1Sa_25:32). It teacheth you what reflections to make upon yourselves in case of disappointment. When we miss any worldly thing that we have desired, say, Have not I lusted after this? Did not I covet it too earnestly? Absalom was the greater curse to David because he loved him too much. Inordinate longings make the affections miscarry.
2. Where there is covetousness there is usually strife, envy, and emulation. Ye lust; ye kill; ye emulate--these hang in a string. As there is a connection and a cognation between virtues and graces--they go hand in hand--so there is a link between sins--they seldom go alone. If a man be a drunkard, he will be a wanton; if he be covetous, he will be envious.
3. It is lust and covetousness that is most apt to trouble neighbourhoods and vicinities (Pro_15:27). Covetousness maketh men of such a harsh and sour disposition. Towards God it is idolatry; it robbeth Him of one of the flowers of His crown, the trust of the creature; and it is the bane of human societies. Why are mens hearts besotted with that which is even the reproach and defamation of their natures?
4. Lust will put men not only upon dishonest endeavours, but unlawful means, to accomplish their ends, killing, and warring, and fighting, etc. Bad means will suit well enough with base ends; they resolve to have it; any means will serve the turn, so they may satisfy their thirst of gain (1Ti_6:9).
5. Do wicked men what they can, when God setteth against them their endeavours are frustrated (Psa_33:10).
6. It is not good to engage in any undertaking without prayer. That no actions must be taken in hand but such as we can commend to God in prayer; such enterprises we must not engage in as we dare not communicate to God in our supplications (Isa_29:15). (T. Manton.)
Lusting and murder
If we remember the state of Jewish society, the bands of robber-outlaws, of whom Barabbas was a type, the four thousand men who were murderers of Act_21:38, the bands of zealots and Sicarii who were prominent in the tumults that preceded the final war with Rome, it will not seem so startling that St. James should emphasise his warning by beginning with the words Ye murder. In such a state of society murder is often the first thing that a man thinks of as a means to gratify his desires, not, as with us, a last resource when other means have failed. (Dean Plumptre.)
Was the picture true?
There was, perhaps, a grim truth in the picture which St. James draws. It was after the deed was done that the murderers began to quarrel over the division of the spoil, and found themselves as unsatisfied as before, still not able to obtain that on which they had set their hearts, and so plunging into fresh quarrels, ending as they began, in bloodshed. (Dean Plumptre.)
Lusting, yet lacking
There is no sowing in a storm. (J. Trapp.)
Ye have not, because ye ask not
The causes of spiritual destitution
I. THE CAUSE IS SOMETIMES NON-ASKING. There are some blessings that God gives without asking--such as being, faculties, seasons, elements of nature, &c.; others that He gives only for asking--spiritual blessings.
1. What does prayer do?
(1) It effects no alteration in the plan of God.
(2) It cannot inform the Almighty of anything of which tie was before ignorant.
(3) It does not give a claim to the Divine favours.
2. But--
(1) It does fulfil a condition of Divine beneficence.
(2) It does bring the mind into vital contact with its Maker.
(3) It does deepen our sense of dependence upon God.
(4) It does fill the soul with the idea of mediation; for all prayer is in the name of Christ.
II. THE CAUSE IS SECRETARIES WRONG ASKING.
1. TO pray insincerely is to pray amiss.
2. Without earnestness.
3. Without faith.
4. Without surrendering our being to God. (D. Thomas.)
Ask and have
Man is a creature abounding in wants, and ever restless, and hence his heart is full of desires. Man is comparable to the sea anemone, with its multitude of tentacles which are always hunting in the water for food; or like certain plants which send out tendrils, seeking after the means of climbing. The poet says, Man never is, but always to be, blest. This fact appertains both to the worst and the best of men. In bad men desires corrupt into lusts: they long after that which is selfish, sensual, and consequently evil. In gracious men there are desires also. Their desires are after the best things-things pure and peaceable, laudable and elevating. They desire Gods glory, and hence their desires spring from higher motives than those which inflame the unrenewed mind. Such desires in Christian men are frequently very fervent and forcible; they ought always to be so; and those desires begotten of the Spirit of God stir the renewed nature, exciting and stimulating it, and making the man to groan and to be in anguish until he can attain that which God has taught him to long for. The lusting of the wicked and the holy desiring of the righteous have their own ways of seeking gratification. The lusting of the wicked develops itself in contention; it kills, and desires to have; it fights, and it wars; while, on the other hand, the desire of the righteous, when rightly guided, betakes itself to a far better course for achieving its purpose, for it expresses itself in prayer fervent and importunate. The godly man, when full of desire, asks and receives at the hand of God.
I. THE POVERTY OF LUSTING. Ye lust, and have not. Carnal lustings, however strong they may be, do not in many cases obtain that which they seek after. The man longs to be happy, but he is not; he pines to be great, but he grows meaner every day; he aspires after this and after that which he thinks will content him, but he is still unsatisfied; he is like the troubled sea which cannot rest. One way or another his life is disappointment; he labours as in the very fire, but the result is vanity and vexation of spirit. How can it be otherwise? If we sow the wind, must we not reap the whirlwind, and nothing else? Or, if peradventure the strong lustings of an active, talented, persevering man do give him what he seeks after, yet how soon he loses it. The pursuit is toilsome, but the possession is a dream. He sits down to eat, and lo! the feast is snatched away, the cup vanishes when it is at his lip. He wins to lose; he builds, and his sandy foundation slips from under his tower, and it lies in ruins. Or if such men have gifts and power enough to retain that which they have won, yet in another sense they have it not while they have it, for the pleasure which they looked for in it is not there. They pluck the apple, and it turns out to be one of those Dead Sea apples which crumble to ashes in the hand. The man is rich, but God takes away from him the power to enjoy his wealth. By his lustings and his warrings, the licentious man at last obtains the object of his cravings, and after a moments gratification, he loathes that which he so passionately lusted for. Thus may it be said of multitudes of the sons of men, Ye lust, and have not. Their poverty is set forth in a threefold manner--Ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; Ye have not, because ye ask not; Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss. If the lusters fail, it is not because they did not set to work to gain their ends; for, according to their nature, they used the most practical means within their reach, and used them eagerly, too. Multitudes of men are living for themselves, competing here and warring there, fighting for their own ]land with the utmost perseverance. They have little choice as to how they will do it. Conscience is not allowed to interfere in their transactions, but the old advice rings in their ears, Get money; get money honestly if you can, but by any means get money. No matter though body and soul be ruined, and others be deluged with misery, fight on, for there is no discharge in this war. If you are to win you must fight; and everything is fair in war. So they muster their forces, they struggle with their fellows, they make the battle of life hotter and hotter, they banish love, and brand tenderness as folly, and yet with all their schemes they obtain not the end of life in any true sense. Well saith James, Ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye have not. When men who are greatly set upon their selfish purposes do not succeed, they may possibly hear that the reason of their non-success is Because ye ask not. Is, then, success to be achieved by asking? So the text seems to hint, and so the righteous find it. Why doth not this man of intense desires take to asking? The reason is, first, because it is unnatural to the natural man to pray; as well expect him to fly. God-reliance he does not understand; self-reliance is his word, hell is his god, and to his god he looks for success. He is so proud that he reckons himself to be his own providence; his own right hand and his active arm shall get to him the victory. Yet he obtains not. The whole history of mankind shows the failure of evil lustings to obtain their object. For a while the carnal man goes on fighting and warring; but by and by he changes his mind, for he is ill, or frightened. His purpose is the same, but if it cannot be achieved one way he will try another. If he must ask, well, he will ask; he will become religious, and do good to himself in that way. He finds that some religious people prosper in the world, and that even sincere Christians are by no means fools in business; and, therefore, he will try their plan. And now he comes under the third censure of our text. Ye ask, and receive not. What is the reason why the man who is the slave of his lusts obtains not his desire, even when he takes to asking? The reason is because his asking is a mere matter of form, his heart is not in his worship. This mans prayer is asking amiss, because it is entirely for himself. He wants to prosper that he may enjoy himself; he wants to be great simply that he may be admired: his prayer begins and ends with self. Look at the indecency of such a prayer, even if it be sincere. When a man so prays he asks God to be his servant, and gratify his desires; nay, worse than that, he wants God to join him in the service of his lusts. He will gratify his lusts, and God shall come and help him to do it. Such prayer is blasphemous; but a large quantity is offered, and it must be one of the most God-provoking things that heaven ever beholds.
II. How CHRISTIAN CHURCHES MAY SUFFER SPIRITUAL POVERTY, SO that they, too, desire to have, and cannot obtain. Of course the Christian seeks higher things than the worldling, else were he not worthy of that name at all. At least professedly his object is to obtain the true riches, and to glorify God in spirit and in truth. Yes, but all Churches do not get what they desire. We have to complain, not here and there, but in many places, of Churches that are nearly asleep and are gradually declining. These Churches have not, for no truth is made prevalent through their zeal, no sin is smitten, no holiness promoted; nothing is done by which God is glorified. And what is the reason of it? First, even among professed Christians, there may be the pursuit of desirable things in a wrong method. Ye fight and war, yet ye have not. Have not Churches thought to prosper by competing with other Churches? Is it not the design of many to succeed by a finer building, better music, and a cleverer ministry than others? Is it not as much a matter of competition as a shop front and a dressed window are with drapers? Is this the way by which the Kingdom of God is to grow up among us? In some cases there is a measure of bitterness in the rivalry. I bring no railing accusation, and, therefore, say no more than this: God will never bless such means and such a spirit; those who give way to them will desire to have, but never obtain. Meanwhile, what is the reason why they do not have a blessing? The text says, Because ye ask not; I am afraid there are Churches which do not ask. Prayer in all forms is too much neglected. But some reply, There are prayer-meetings, and we do ask for the blessing, and yet it comes not. Is not the explanation to be found in the other part of the text, Ye have not, because ye ask amiss? He who prays without fervency does not pray at all. We cannot commune with God, who is a consuming fire, if there is no fire in our prayers. Many prayers fail of their errand because there is no faith in them. Prayers which are filled with doubt are requests for refusal.
III. THE WEALTH WHICH AWAITS THE USE OF THE RIGHT MEANS, namely, of asking rightly of God.
1. How very small, after all, is this demand which God makes of us. Ask! Why, it is the least thing He can possibly expect of us, and it is no more than we ordinarily require of those who need help from us. We expect a poor man to ask; and if he does not, we lay the blame of his lack upon himself. If God will give for the asking, and we remain poor, who is to blame? Surely there must be in our hearts a lurking enmity to Him; or else, instead of its being an unwelcome necessity, it would be regarded as a great delight.
2. However, whether we like it or not, remember, asking is the rule of the kingdom. Ask, and ye shall receive. It is a rule that never will be altered in anybodys case. Why should it be? What reason can be pleaded why we should be exempted from prayer? What argument can there be why we should be deprived of the privilege and delivered from the necessity of supplication?
3. Moreover, it is clear to even the most shallow thinker that there are some things necessary for the Church of God which we cannot get otherwise than by prayer. You can buy all sorts of ecclesiastical furniture, you can purchase any kind of paint, brass, muslin, blue, scarlet, and fine linen, together with flutes, harps, sackbuts, psalteries, and all kinds of music--you can get these without prayer; in fact, it would be an impertinence to pray about such rubbish; but you cannot get the Holy Ghost without prayer. Neither can you get communion with God without prayer. He that will not pray cannot have communion with God. Yet more, there is no real spiritual communion of the Church with its own members when prayer is suspended. Prayer must be in action, or else those blessings which are vitally essentially to the success of the Church can never come to it. Prayer is the great door of spiritual blessing, and if you close it you shut out the favour.
4. Do you not think that this asking which God requires is a very great privilege? Suppose we were in our spiritual nature full of strong desires, and yet dumb as to the tongue of prayer, methinks it would be one of the direst afflictions that could possibly befall us; we should be terribly maimed and dismembered, and our agony would be overwhelming. Blessed be His name, the Lord ordains a way of utterance, and bids our hearts speak out to Him.
5. We must pray: it seems to me that it ought to be the first thing we ever think of doing when in need.
6. Alas! according to Scripture and observation, and, I grieve to add, according to experience, prayer is often the last thing. God is sought unto when we are driven into a corner and ready to perish. And what a mercy it is that He hears such laggard prayers, and delivers the suppliants out of their troubles.
7. Do you know what great things are to be had for the asking? Have you ever thought of it? Does it not stimulate you to pray fervently? All heaven lies before the grasp of the asking man; all the promises of God are rich and inexhaustible, and their fulfilment is to be had by prayer.
8. I will mention another proof that ought to make us pray, and that is, that if we ask, God will give to us much more than we ask. Abraham asked of God that Ishmael might live before him. He thought, Surely, this is the promised seed: I cannot expect that Sarah will bear a child in her old age. God has promised me a seed, and surely it must be this child of Hagar. Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee! God granted him that, but He gave him Isaac as well, and all the blessings of the covenant. There is Jacob; he kneels down to pray, and asks the Lord to give him bread to eat and raiment to put on. But what did his God give him? When tie came back to Bethel he had two bands, thousands of sheep and camels, and much wealth. God had heard him and done exceeding abundantly above what he asked. Well, say you, but is that true of New Testament prayers? Yes, it is so with the New Testament pleaders, whether saints or sinners. They brought a man to Christ sick of the palsy, and asked Him to heal him; and He said, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. He had not asked that, had he? No; but God gives greater things than we ask for. Hear that poor, dying thiefs humble prayer: Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. Jesus replies, To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Petitionless prayers
Suppose that a man takes up his pen and a piece of parchment, and writes on the top of it, To the Queens Most Excellent Majesty.: the humble petition of So-and-So; but there he stops. He sits with the pen in his hand for half an hour, but does not add another word, then rises and goes his way. And he repeats this process day after day--beginning a hundred sheets of paper, but putting into them no express request; sometimes, perhaps, scratching down a few sentences which nobody can read, not even himself, but never plainly and deliberately setting down what it is that he desires. Can he wonder that his blank petition and scribbled parchments have no sensible effect on himself nor on any one besides? And has he any right to say, I wonder what can be the matter. Other people get answers to their petitions, but I am not aware that the slightest notice has ever been taken of one of mine. I am not conscious of having got a single favour, or being a whir the better for all that I have written? Could you expect it? When did you ever finish a petition? When did you ever despatch and forward one to the feet of Majesty? And so there are many persons who pass their days inditing blank petitions--or rather petitionless forms of prayer. (J. Hamilton, D. D.)
Propriety of prayer
A gentleman of fine social qualities, always ready to make liberal provision for the gratification of his children, a man of science, and a moralist of the strictest school, was sceptical in regard to prayer, thinking it superfluous to ask God for what nature had already furnished ready to hand. His eldest son became a disciple of Christ. The father, while recognising a happy change in the spirit and deportment of the youth, still harped upon his old objection to prayer, as unphilosophical and unnecessary. I remember, said the son, that I once made free use of your pictures, specimens, and instruments for the entertainment of my friends. When you came home you said to me, All that I have belongs to my children, and I have provided it on purpose for them; still, I think it would be respectful always to ask your father before taking anything. And so, added the son, although God has provided everything for me, I think it is respectful to ask Him, and to thank Him for what I use. The sceptic was silent; but he has since admitted that he has never been able to invent an answer to this simple, personal, sensible argument for prayer.
Ye ask amiss
Requisites of prayer
Prayer is the nearest approach that, in our present state, we can make to the Deity. To neglect or shun this duty is to shun all approaches to God.
I. ATTENTION AND FERVENCY are principally requisite to render our prayers acceptable to God and beneficial to ourselves. It is not the service of the lips, it is the homage of the mind which God regards. He sees and approves even the silent devotions of the heart.
II. PERSEVERANCE is another condition upon which depends the success of our prayers.
III. HUMILITY AND SUBMISSION to the Divine will are necessary conditions of our prayers.
1. Humility, because of His infinite greatness and majesty.
2. Submission to His all-wise will, because of our own ignorance.
IV. Our prayers to God ought to be accompanied with A TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in His goodness; a confidence that composes our fears, and sets us above all despondency.
V. INTEGRITY OF HEART, without which we have reason to apprehend that God will be as regardless of our supplications as we have been of His commandments. (G. Carr.)
Conditions of prayer
I. THE PROMISE GIVEN TO PRAYER IS CONDITIONAL, AND NOT ABSOLUTE, AS TOUCHING THE THING WHICH IS PRAYED FOR; and therefore we may fail in gaining an answer to prayer in consequence of praying for that which is wrong in itself, or which would be fraught with danger to its possessor. Prayer is not a power entrusted to us, like that of free will, which we may exert for good or evil, for weal or woe; it must be used for good, either present or ultimate. What we pray for, it must be consistent with the Divine perfections to grant. To pray to a Holy God for the fulfilment of some evil desire, and to suppose that He will grant our petition, is to degrade God in a way which He Himself has denounced--Thou thoughtest wickedly, that I am even such a one as thyself, and to make Him serve with us in our sins. Having seen what we may not pray for, consider what are legitimate subjects for petition. The good things which are given to us by God are either spiritual or temporal; under the former are included our salvation and perfection, and all the means which directly lead to and insure those results--e.g., pardon for sin, strength against temptation, final perseverance; under the latter, all the blessings of this life. We will take temporal goods first, and spiritual after, reversing the order of importance. Attached to every prayer for temporal things, then, there must be understood or expressed the clause as may be most expedient for us, until we know the will of God concerning the thing we are asking from Him. Spiritual goods differ from the former in two great respects. They must be sought primarily, and prayers for them need not be guarded by any implied or expressed condition.
II. THAT THE STATE OF THE PERSON WHO ASKS A BENEFIT IS A MATTER OF CONSEQUENCE may be learnt by analogy from the influence which it possesses with our fellow-men when prayers are addressed to them. We are much affected by the relation of the petitioner to us in granting a favour. To be in a state of grace, to have the privilege of the adopted child, then, is a ground of acceptance with God; whilst, on the other hand, if the heart is set on sin, and has no covenanted relation with God, however right the thing asked for may be, the prayer may be of no avail. Prayer unites the soul to God, but we cannot conceive of that union, unless there is some likeness between the terms of it, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? St. Augustine illustrates this truth in the following manner: The fountain, he says, which ceaselessly pours forth its waters will not fill the vessel which has no mouth, or which is inverted, or which is held on one side. In the same way, God is the Fount of all goods, and desires to impart His gifts to all, but we fail to receive them, because our heart is closed against Him, or turned away from Him, or but half-converted towards Him. Whilst the heart is set on earthly possessions, or bent on sin, or has a lingering love for sinful pleasure, it is incapable of receiving and retaining the gifts of God; but to the heart that is whole with Him, He will give out of His fulness.
III. THERE ARE CERTAIN CONDITIONS WHICH OUGHT TO ACCOMPANY THE ACT OF PRAYING, IN ORDER TO ENSURE SUCCESS. Prayer is a momentous action, and must therefore be performed in a becoming manner; and a defect in this respect, though the thing prayed for be right, and the soul that prayed be in a state of grace, may hinder the accomplishment of its petitions.
1. The first of these conditions is faith. If faith fails, says St. Augustine, prayer perishes. It must be observed, that the faith which should accompany an act of prayer is of a special kind; it does not consist in the acknowledgment of the Unseen, or in the acceptance of revealed truth generally, but has direct reference to the promises of God which concern prayer. Yet it must not be supposed that, in order to pray acceptably, we must always feel quite certain of obtaining our requests; we must feel quite certain that, as far as God is concerned, He has the power to hear and answer prayer, and that He uses it as an instrument of His providence, but that in temporal things, at least, inasmuch as the bestowal of what we ask may not be expedient for us, therefore absolute certainty of gaining it may not be entertained.
2. Another disposition for praying aright, and one which touches so closely on the first as to render its separate treatment a difficulty, is to be found in the exercise of hope. We must not unduly dwell either upon the magnitude of the thing asked, or the unlikelihood of its bestowal, or our unworthiness to receive it, but rather turn to the merits of our Mediator, in whom, St. Paul says, we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him; and to the Fatherhood of God, as our Lord Himself, in the prayer which He has given us for a model, has directed--that this second disposition for praying acceptably may be elicited and sustained. But this confidence must be flanked by another virtue, to hinder it from excess.
3. Though it be true that the prayer of the timid does not reach the heavens, it is also to be remembered that the prayer of the presumptuous only reaches heaven to be beaten back to earth. Confidence must be held in check by lowliness.
4. There is one disposition more which is necessary, if we would secure the force of prayer--perseverance. God promises to answer prayer, but He does not bind Himself to answer it at the time we think best. There are reasons for delay, some doubtless inscrutable, but others which are in some degree within the reach of our comprehension. Delay may be occasioned by the fact that our dispositions need to be ripened before, according to the Divine Providence, an answer to prayer can be granted; or, again, another time may be better for us to receive the benefit for which we have besought God; or, again, some past sin may for a while suspend the Divine favours, or make them more difficult of attainment, as a needful discipline; or the delay may be for the purpose of heightening our sense of the benefit, when granted, and increasing our gratification in the enjoyment of it. Moreover, the struggle itself in perseveringly pressing upon God our petitions, is lucrative in several ways; it lays up store above, where patient faithfulness is not unrewarded; it has a sanctifying effect, for the inner life grows through the exercise of those virtues which prayer calls into operation. A third effect of persevering and finally successful petition is to be found in the witness it bears to the power of prayer--a witness to ourselves in the souls secret experience, and, if known, to others also--for, as in seeking anything from one another, it is not in that which is given at once that we find an evidence of the power of our solicitation, but in that which has been again and again refused, and at last is, as it were, almost extorted froth another; so when God grants our requests, after He has long refused to do so, we seem to conquer Him by our entreaties, and thereby the potency of prayer is conspicuously manifested. The conditions of prayer may be summed up in few words--if we turn from sin and seek God, if we turn from earth and seek heaven, if in prayer we exert all our spiritual energies, we shall be heard; and we shall be able from our own experience to bear witness to the power of prayer. (W. H. Hutchings, M. A.)
How prayer may be rendered unavailing
1. By grieving the Spirit through not feeling our need of His assistance.
2. By lack of reverence.
3. By praying with a fretful and complaining spirit.
4. By thinking more of self them of God.
5. By a want of definiteness.
6. By the absence of earnest desire.
7. By impenitence.
8. By unwillingness to have our prayer answered. We pray for the generous loving Spirit of Christ; then we remember a rival in business, or an enemy who has wronged us--and the spirit of prayer is gone.
9. By being in too great a hurry when we pray. Fall on your knees, and grow there, says one who has tested the worth of prayer.
10. By neglecting to maintain a state of prayer. The spirit of prayer, like a silvery stream, must run all through our daily life.
11. Through want of co-operation with God in bringing the answer to our own prayer. You pray for the conversion of sinners. Are you living before them in a way that they may have occasion to glorify God? What have you given for the conversion of the heathen? I once endeavoured to secure five hundred dollars from a man in Boston for the work among the heathen. He told me he would make it a subject of prayer. A few days afterwards I saw him, and he gave me one hundred dollars. Theft same man, a little later, built a residence for seventy-five thousand dollars, and furnished it for one-third as much more. You pray for your citys welfare. How did you vote? (J. A. M. Chapman, D. D.)
Praying amiss
1. We pray amiss when our ends and aims are not right in prayer. The end is a main circumstance in every action, the purest offspring of the soul.
2. Our ends and aims are wrong in prayer when we ask blessings for the use and encouragement of our lusts. Men sin with reference to the aim of prayer several ways.
(1) When the end is grossly carnal and sinful. Some seek God for their sins, and would engage the Divine blessing upon a revengeful and carnal enterprise; as the thief kindleth his torch that he might steal by at the lamps of the altar.
(2) When men privily seek to gratify their lusts, men look upon God as some great power that must serve their carnal turns; as he came to Christ, Master, speak to my brother to divide the inheritance (Luk_12:13). We would have somewhat from God to give to lust; health and long life, that we may live pleasantly; wealth, that we may fare deliciously every day; estates, that we raise up our name and family; victory and success, to excuse ourselves from glorifying God by suffering, or to wreak our malice upon the enemies; Church deliverances, out of a spirit of wrath and revenge.
(3) When we pray for blessings with a selfish aim, and not with serious and actual designs of Gods glory, as when a man prayeth for spiritual blessings with a mere respect to his own ease and comfort, as for pardon, heaven, grace, faith, repentance, only that he may escape wrath. This is but a carnal respect to our own good and welfare. God would have us mind our own comfort, but not only. Gods glory is the pure spiritual aim.
3. Prayers framed out of a carnal intention are usually successless. God never undertook to satisfy fleshly desires. He will own no other voice in prayer but that of His own Spirit (Rom_8:27). (T. Manton.)
The missing prayer
Prayers miss--
1. Because they are too selfish.
(1) We set a high value on ourselves, and no dependence upon
God.
(2) Self seeking is the chief prompting principle.
(3) We lack regard for Gods glory and our own good.
(4) We feel not our own need.
2. Because they are too fretful and complaining. Not a grain of praise or thanksgiving.
3. Because they are too indefinite, vague, doubtful, and calculative.
4. Because they are too insincere, too much in a hurry, and irreverent.
5. Because they are too heartless.
(1) The source from which they rise is bad--the heart.
(2) The desire (the very soul of prayer) is worldly. No continuous thought of God.
(3) Soul earnestness is absent. All is cold, lifeless. (J. Harries.)
Prayer
Most Christians are alive to the duty of prayer, and believe most firmly in its power. Yet, in the experience of all, prayer is not prevalent, as it ought. Few but have reason sadly to confess: We have asked but we have received not. Where, then, lies the fault? Is it with God? No; Gods ear is never heavy that it cannot hear. His arm is never shortened that it cannot save. The fault lies with ourselves. It is because we have not asked aright that we have asked in vain.
I. THERE MAY BE SOMETHING AMISS IN THE SOURCE FROM WHENCE OUR PRAYERS COME. All true prayer must come from the heart. Its own emptiness and want must prompt the cry, else it will not enter into the ear of the Lord of Sabaoth. Perhaps our hearts are toll, and there is no room for the blessing, which we profess to seek, to enter. Full of worldly desires, delights, and passions. In such a case, vain must our asking be--insulting to the God whom we address.
II. THERE MAY BE SOMETHING AMISS IN THE OBJECTS WHICH OUR PRAYERS SEEK. Perhaps we have no definite object in view whatever. We have not inquired as to our wants ere engaging in the exercise. Utter in Gods presence no vague generalities, which have been well termed the death of prayer, but plead before Him felt, individual want. But granting that we have a definite object in view, that object may be altogether of a selfish nature. It is something pleasing to ourselves we wish--self-honour, self-pleasure, self-gratification. So intently is our mind fixed upon some object on which our heart is set--so entirely are we wrapt up in the attainment of it--that we forget to ask ourselves whether the gratification of our desire may be conducive to our highest well-being, may be in accordance with the will of God.
III. THERE MAY BE SOMETHING AMISS IN THE SPIRIT BY WHICH OUR PRAYERS ARE PERVADED, What was said concerning the Israelites with reference to Cannaan may be said of our prayers with reference to the audience chamber of God: They could not enter in because of unbelief. In this--the absence of faith--we have the secret of the non-success of the greater number of our petitions. And our faith must be such as to bring us to the mercy-seat pleading again and yet again the self-same request. Our faith must not fail, if at first asking no answer comes, for we ask amiss if we ask not perseveringly. (W. R. Inglis.)
The causes of unsuccessful prayer
1. We ask amiss, and consequently without success, when we fail to feel the parental love of God. Your approaches to the mercy-seat have been visits of ceremony, rather than affection; your prayers have been elaborations of language, rather than bursts of strong desire. Cold reserve has taken the place of openhearted confidence; and you have often said only what you thought you ought to feel, instead of saying what you really felt, and asking for what you really wanted. You have treated God as a stranger. You have not confided to Him your secrets. You have not even told Him so much as you have told your father or mother. You have not trusted His mighty love.
2. We ask amiss if, in our prayers, we fail to realise the mediation of Christ. Though children, we are rebels; and there is no rebel so sinful as a rebel-child. We have forfeited the original rights of children, and can approach God no more directly, but only mediately. You close your prayers with the formula, We ask all these things for Christs sake; but in religion meaning is everything, and what do you mean? Do you truly renounce dependence on yourself, and rely alone on the worthiness of Jesus? Do you make His name your grand argument, and only hope? Does the fact of His mediation have to you the force of a reality? Do you put all your prayers into His censer, that they may be offered as His own?
3. We ask amiss when we ask for wrong things. The heart will ever give a bias to the judgment. What we know depends upon what we are. In our case the heart is wrong; the judgment, therefore, is likely to be wrong; and as a further consequence, we are likely to ask for wrong things. In us there is at once the inexperience of childhood, and the darkness of a perverted nature; and, naturally, the things we wish for are not always the things a loving Father could bestow. In this world of illusions, and from this heart of darkness, we often ask for a temptation, or for a sorrow, or for a curse, when, deceived by its wrong name or fascinating aspect, we think it would be a glorious boon. Where and what should we now have been if all our prayers had been answered? There can be no mistake in the judgment of the only wise; no unkindness in love; no unfaithfulness in Him whose name is faithful and true. What if your prayers had been heard? Agrippina implored the gods that she might live to see her infant Nero an emperor. Emperor he became, and from his imperial throne plotted that mothers death.
4. We ask amiss, when our prayers are wanting in intensity. A thing may be good in itself, remarks a Puritan father, yet not well done. A man may sin in doing a good thing, but not in doing well. When Cicero was asked which oration of Demosthenes he thought best, he said, the longest. But if the question should be, which of prayers are the best, the answer then must be the strongest. Therefore, let all young converts who are apt to think more than is meet of their own enlargements, endeavour to turn their length into strength, and remember the wide difference between the gift and the grace of prayer.
5. We ask amiss if we are satisfied with devoting hurried and infrequent periods of time to the exercise of prayer. True, prayer consists not in telling off a long rosary of solemn words; and that length which is simply the result of formal routine, or verbal fluency, is to be condemned without reserve; but this does not render it the less important that we should have seasons, long and frequent as circumstances will allow, which shall be regarded as sacred to prayer; stated seasons, when, like the prophet in his cave, or the priest in the holiest place, the soul is to be alone with God, to speak and to be spoken to, to rise above the life of the senses, and thus to cultivate a sacred intimacy with Him who is invisible. Many a man, if he dared to give his thoughts expression, would say, I have so much to do that I really have no time for prayer. Luther thought differently when he said, I have so much to do that I find I cannot get on without three hours a day of praying. No time for prayer! But the scholar must have time to read his books, and the sailor to consult his compass. Every man must have time for his own vocation; and your vocation is prayer. As a man lives by his labour, a Christian lives by his faith, and prayer is but the act by which faith draws the spirits supplies of life from God, the Source.
6. You should also be reminded that the dominion of some particular sin may often rob your prayers of their efficacy.
7. We ask amiss when we ask for a blessing on some sinful deed, or on something which we do for a sinful end. A. Roman robber is said thus to have prayed to the goddess Laverna: Fair Laverna, give me a prosperous robbery, a rich prey, and a secret escape. Let me become rich by fraud, and still be accounted religious (Horace, Eph. I., Lib. 1:16, 60). The Pharisees, those Brahmins of ancient Israel, devoured widows houses, and yet, for a pretence, made long prayers, no doubt trying to believe that prayer sanctified their fraud, and had a virtue to secure its prosperity. Many a man, who wears a worthier name than they, will pray, when, if he had but courage to analyse his prayer, he would find that he is virtually asking Gods blessing on some sin. He will pray when he sets out on some enterprise which must prove a temptation to himself, or which tends to the injury of others; he will pray as he begins some act of strife or litigation; he will pray when he is about to engage in some commercial dishonesties, made respectable by custom, or disguised by some gentle name; and, while he cannot afford, or will not dare to consider the question of their Christian lawfulness, he prays that God may bless him in his deed; and the desire of his heart is that he may still be counted religious. But even though the thing we seek be intrinsically good, if our motive in seeking it be doubtful, our prayers will be unavailing. Not only must we know what we ask, but why we ask it. You may do right to ask for health; to ask for the powers of industrial efficiency; to ask for social influence; to ask God to speed the plough of worldly toil; for there is no evil inherent in the nature of these things; but if you ask simply with a view to purposes of pride or pleasure, God will be silent. (C. Stanford, D. D.)
Hindrances to the efficacy of social prayer
1. The comparatively small numbers who sustain it may help to account for the comparatively slight and partial results of social prayer. As every power must be stronger in its collective than in its separate existence, in its aggregate than in its individuality--and will have augmented force in the degree of its increasing accumulation--efficacious as is solitary prayer, social prayer has a heightened efficacy; and if the prayer of one righteous man avail much, the prayers of many avail more. When, therefore, we forsake the assembling of ourselves together--when we leave them to be sustained by a limited and variable attendance--what wonder is it if we find that in proportion as they lose in social force, they die in spiritual effect? There is yet another affecting consideration. When all the inhabitants of a certain district are summoned for the purpose of sending a petition to the legislature, but only a few respond; the inference is, that, whatever may be the feeling of a few individuals, the community itself is indifferent to that petition, and it is, therefore, set aside as a thing of utter insignificance. On the same principle, when a Church is summoned by its executive ministry to weekly meetings for prayer, and only a few members attend, is it not a fair inference that the Church itself is indifferent to those prayers? They may, indeed, be earnestly presented by individuals, but the whole society is not identified with their presentation; and if God dealt with us, as man deals with man, we could not feel surprised if such prayers of the Church were rather regarded as an assertion of its indifference, than an expression of its strong desire.
2. Want of agreement in spirit, on the part of those who meet to pray, may sometimes hinder the success of social prayer. If, while one prays aloud, the rest are prayerless; if, instead of pouring their desires along the channel of his language, they are the listless victims of unsettled and dispersive thought, before God there is no prayer meeting, but only one solitary prayer. Let every man, if possible, sign every petition--sign it with his individual mind--and make it his own, or else let all the non-consenting multitude separate, each man to mourn apart, and to offer his sacrifice in solitude.
3. Much of what frequently enters into the exercise of social prayer, is no prayer at all, and is therefore followed by no definite results. Shall the Church only be in earnest when in sorrow, and do we require persecution to teach us how to pray?
4. Another cause of ineffectiveness may be the frequent want of suitable gifts on the part of those who lead the devotion. When alone with God, the language of silence, or of confused, broken, almost silent speech, tell all that need to he told; but it is different in social prayer; there, the gift of utterance is required, and the prayer utterer, like the preacher, must; find fit words, and seek the gift no less than the grace of prayer. (C. Stanford, D. D.)
Ye ask, and receive not
The words are obviously written as in answer to an implied objection: Not ask, a man might say; Come and listen to our prayers; no one can accuse us of neglecting our devotions. Incredible as it might seem that men plundering and murdering, as the previous verses represent them, should have held such language, or been in any sense men who prayed, the history of Christendom presents but too many instances of like anomalies. Cornish wreckers going from church to their accursed work, Italian brigands propitiating their patron saint before attacking a company of travellers, slave-traders, such as John Newton once was, recording piously Gods blessing on their traffic of the year; these may serve to show how soon conscience may be seared, and its warning voice come to give but an uncertain sound. (Dean Plumptre.)
The Dead-prayer Office
What becomes of all the unanswered letters? Many of them find their way to the Deadletter Office. Some never reach the person for whom they are intended because the postage is not paid; some fail because they are directed to the wrong office; some cannot be sent because the address is illegible; and some because the matter enclosed is not such as may be sent by post. All these are examined at different offices, and finally they fall into the Dead-letter Office. Some of the reasons assigned why letters go to the Dead-letter Office will hold good of unanswered prayers. But no really valuable prayer with a hearts me-sage in it ever fails of its destination or goes unanswered.
Wrong praying
Sometimes we ask for things which would be very hurtful to others, though they might be gain to us. A poor boy needed a sovereign to enter a mechanical institute, where he would have great advantages. He only heard of it a short while before the opening of the term, and he did not see how he could get the money in time. His father could not afford give it to him; he tried in vain to raise it. He was too proud to ask a friend for it; so he prayed God that he might somewhere find the sovereign he needed. He did not find it. Now, was there anything wrong in the prayer? At first sight it looks simple and harmless enough, doesnt it? But think for a moment. Would not some one have to lose the sovereign before the lad could find it? That puts the matter in a very different light. This poor lad was asking God to take the money out of some ones pocket and put it into his. But it surely is not fair to ask God to help us at the expense of other people. (J. Themore)
Little sins
We may be asking of God, and yet, at the same time, clinging to some one sin--perhaps some very small thing in itself, as we call it, but enough to interrupt the current between us and God. It does not take such a very large thing to interrupt the electric current. A whole train was stopped not long ago because some small insect had got where it ought not to have been. It stopped the electric current that turned a certain disc to show the engineer whether or not he was to go on. That little insect stopped the current and the whole thing went wrong; the engineer stopped the train, which was not necessary at all. So it does not take a very obviously visible sin to break the communication between God and us. (Theodore Monod.)
Thoughtful prayer
The father of Sir Philip Sidney enjoined upon his son, when he went to school, never to neglect thoughtful prayer. It was golden advice, and doubtless his faithful obedience to the precept helped to make Philip Sidney the peerless flower of knighthood and the stainless man that he was--a man for whom, for months after his death, every gentleman in England wore mourning. (Baxendales Anecdotes.)
Aimless praying
I think that most men, when they pray, are like an archer who shoots in the dark. Some one tells him that if he will strike the target placed in a certain hole, he shall have such a reward; and he lets fly his arrow into the hole, without being able to see the object which he wishes to hit, hoping that he may hit it and that the reward will be forthcoming. And we take our desires as arrows, and, without seeing any target, fire, and fire, and fire, till our quiver is empty, hoping that we may hit something, and that some benefit may revert to us many men pray, and pray, and pray, till they are tired of praying, without any perceptible result, and then say, It is of no use; it is fantasy and folly. Some men pray, not because they think they will hit anything, but because it makes them feel better. Very few men pray intelligently. (H. W. Beecher.)
Foolish prayers unanswered
One of AEsops fables tells how a herdsman who had lost a calf out of his grounds sent to seek it everywhere, but net finding it betook himself to prayer. Great Jupiter, said he, if thou wilt show me the thief that has stolen my calf I will sacrifice a kid to thee. The prayer was scarcely uttered when the thief stood before him--it was a lion. The poor herdsman was terrified, and his discovery drove him again to prayer. I have not forgotten my vow, O Jupiter, he said, but now that thou hast shown me the thief, I will make the kid a bull if thou wilt take him away again. The moral of the fable is that the fulfilment of our wishes might often prove our ruin. Our ignorance often betrays us into errors which would be fatal if our prayers were granted. It is in kindness to us that they are refused.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Chapter 18
Chapter 18
ST. JAMES AND PLATO ON LUSTS AS THE CAUSES OF STRIFE; THEIR EFFECT ON PRAYER.
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Jam_4:1-13
THE change from the close of the third chapter to the beginning of the fourth is startling. St. James has just been sketching with much beauty the excellences of the heavenly wisdom, and especially its marked characteristic of always tending to produce an atmosphere of peace, in which the seed that produces the fruit of righteousness will grow and flourish. Gentleness, good-will, mercy, righteousness, peace-these form the main features of his sketch. And then he abruptly turns upon his readers with the question, "Whence come wars, and whence come fightings among you?"
The sudden transition from the subject of peace to the opposite is deliberate. Its object is to startle and awaken the consciences of those who are addressed. The wisdom from below produces bitter jealousy and faction; the wisdom from above produces gentleness and peace. Then how is to be explained the origin of the wars and fightings which prevail among the twelve tribes of the Dispersion? That ought to set them thinking. These things must be traced to causes which are earthly or demoniacal rather than heavenly; and if so, those who are guilty of them, instead of contending for the office of teaching others, ought to be seriously considering how to correct themselves. Here, again, there is the strangest contradiction between their professions and their practice.
Clement of Rome seems to have this passage in his mind when he writes (cir. A.D. 97) to the Church of Corinth, "Wherefore are there strifes and wraths, and factions and divisions, and war among you?" (46).
"Wars" (πολεμοι) and "fightings" (μαχαι) are not to be understood literally. When the text is applied to international warfare between Christian states in modern times, or to any case of civil war, it may be so interpreted without doing violence to its spirit; but that is trot the original meaning of the words. There was no civil war among the Jews at this time, still less among the Jewish Christians. St. James is referring to private quarrels and law-suits, social rivalries and factions, and religious controversies. The subject-matter of these disputes and contentions is not indicated, because that is not what is denounced. It is not for having differences about this or that, whether rights of property, or posts of honor, or ecclesiastical questions, that St. James rebukes them, but for the rancorous, greedy, and worldly spirit in which their disputes are conducted. Evidently the lust of possession is among the things which produce the contentions. Jewish appetite for wealth is at work among them.
It was stated in a former chapter that there are places in this Epistle in which St. James seems to go beyond the precise circle of readers addressed in the opening words, and to glance at the whole Jewish nation, whether outside Palestine or not, and whether Christian or not. These more comprehensive addresses are more frequent in the second half of the Epistle than in the first, and one is inclined to believe that the passage before us is one of them. In that case we may believe that the bitter contentions which divided Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Essenes, Zealots, and Samaritans from one another are included in the wars and fightings, as well as the quarrels which disgraced Christian Jews. In any case we see that the Jews who had entered the Christian Church had brought with them that contentious spirit which was one of their national characteristics. Just as St. Paul has to contend with Greek love of faction in his converts at Corinth, so St. James has to contend with a similar Jewish failing among the converts from Judaism. And it would seem as if he hoped through these converts to reach many of those who were not yet converted. What he wrote to Christian synagogues would possibly be heard of and noted in synagogues which were not Christian. At any rate this Epistle contains ample evidence that the grievous scandals which amaze us in the early history of the Apostolic Churches of Corinth, Galatia, and Ephesus were not peculiar to converts from heathenism: among the Christians of the circumcision, who had had the advantage of life-long knowledge of God and of His, law, there were evils as serious, and sometimes very similar in kind. The notion that the Church of the Apostolic age was in a condition of ideal perfection is a beautiful but baseless dream.
"Whence wars, and whence fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your pleasures which war in your members?" By a common transposition, St. James, in answering his own question, puts the pleasures which excite and gratify the lusts instead of the lusts themselves, in much the same way as we use "drink" for intemperance, and "gold" for avarice. These lusts for pleasures have their quarters or camp in the members of the body, i.e., in the sensual part of mans nature. But they are there, not to rest, but to make war, to go after, and seize, and take for a prey that Which has roused them from their quietude and set them in motion. There the picture, as drawn by St. James, ends. St. Paul carries it a stage farther, and speaks of the "different law in my members, warring against the law of my Rom_7:23. St. Peter does the same, when he beseeches his readers, as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul"; {1Pe_2:11} and some commentators would supply either "against the mind" or "against the soul" here. But there is no need to supply anything, and if one did supply anything the "wars and fightings among you" would rather lead us to understand that the lusts in each ones members make war against everything which interferes with their gratification, and such would be the possessions and desires of other people. This completion of St. Jamess picture agrees well also with what follows:
"Ye lust, and have not: ye kill and covet, and cannot obtain." But it is best to leave the metaphor just where he leaves it, without adding anything. And the fact that he does not add "against the mind" or "against the soul" is some slight indication that he had not seen either the passage in Romans or in the Epistle of St. Peter.
In the "Phaedo" of Plato (66, 67) there is a beautiful passage, which presents some striking coincidences with the words of St. James. "Wars, and factions, and fightings have no other source than the body and its lusts. For it is for the getting of wealth that all our wars arise, and we are compelled to get wealth because of our body, to whose service w are slaves; and in consequence we have no leisure for philosophy, because of all these things. And the worst of all is that if we get any leisure from it, and turn to some question, in the midst of our inquiries the body is everywhere coming in, introducing turmoil and confusion, and bewildering us, so that by it we are prevented from seeing the truth. But indeed it has been proved to us that if we are ever to have pure knowledge of anything we must get rid of the body, and with the soul by itself must behold things by themselves. Then, it would seem, we shall obtain the wisdom which we desire, and of which we say that we are lovers; when we are dead, as the argument shows, but in this life not. For if it be impossible while we are in the body to have pure knowledge of anything, then of two things one-either knowledge is not to be obtained at all, or after we are dead; for then the soul will be by itself, apart from the body, but before that not. And in this life, it would seem, we shall make the nearest approach to knowledge if we have no communication or fellowship whatever with the body, beyond what necessity compels, and are not filled with its nature, but remain pure from its taint, until God Himself shall set us free. And in this way shall we be pure, being delivered from the foolishness of the body, and shall be with other like souls, and shall know of ourselves all that is clear and cloudless, and that is perhaps all one with the truth."
Plato and St. James are entirely agreed in holding that wars and fightings are caused by the lusts that have their seat in the body, and that this condition of fightings without, and lusts within, is quite incompatible with the possession of heavenly wisdom. But there the agreement between them ceases. The conclusion which Plato arrives at is that the philosopher must, so far as is possible, neglect and excommunicate his body, as an intolerable source of corruption, yearning for the time when death shall set him free from the burden of waiting upon this obstacle between his soul and the truth. Plato has no idea that the body may be sanctified here and glorified hereafter; he regards it simply as a necessary evil, which may be mini-raised by watchfulness, but which can in no way be turned into a blessing. The blessing will come when the body is annihilated by death. St. James, on the contrary, exhorts us to cut ourselves off, not from the body, but from friendship with the world. If we resist the Evil One, who tempts us through our ferocious lusts, he will flee from us. God will give us the grace we need, if we pray for that rather than for pleasures. He will draw nigh to us if we draw nigh to Him; and if we purify our hearts He will make His Spirit to dwell in them. Even in this life the wisdom that is from above is attainable, and where that has found a home factions and fightings cease. When the passions cease to war, those who have hitherto been swayed by their passions will cease to war also. But those whom St. James addresses are as yet very far from this blessed condition.
"Ye lust, and have not: ye kill and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war." In short, sharp, telling sentences he puts forth the items of his indictment; but it is not easy to punctuate them satisfactorily, nor to decide whether "ye kill" is to be understood literally or not. In none of the English versions does the punctuation seem to bring out a logical sequence of clauses. The following arrangement is suggested for consideration: "Ye lust, and have not; ye kill. And ye covet, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war." In this way we obtain two sentences of similar meaning, which exactly balance one another. "Ye lust, and have not," corresponds with, "Ye covet, and cannot obtain," and "ye kill" with "ye fight and war"; and in each sentence the last clause is the consequence of what precedes. "Ye lust, and have not; therefore ye kill." "Ye covet, and cannot obtain; therefore ye fight and war." This grouping of the clauses yields good sense, and does no violence to the Greek.
"Ye lust, and have not; therefore ye kill." Is "kill" to be understood literally? That murder, prompted by avarice and passion, was common among the Christian Jews of the Dispersion, is quite incredible. That monstrous scandals occurred in the Apostolic age, especially among Gentile converts, who supposed that the freedom of the Gospel meant lax morality, is unquestionable; but that these scandals ever took the form of indifference to human life we have no evidence. And it is specially improbable that murder would be frequent among those who, before they became Christians, had been obedient to the Mosaic Law. St. James may have a single case in his mind, like that of the incestuous marriage at Corinth; but in that case he would probably have expressed himself differently. Or again, as was suggested above, he may in this section be addressing the whole Jewish race, and not merely those who had become converts to Christianity; and in that case he may be referring to the brigandage and assassination which a combination of causes, social, political, and religious, had rendered common among the Jews, especially in Palestine, at this time. Of this evil we have plenty of evidence both in the New Testament and in Josephus. Barabbas and the two robbers who were crucified with Christ are instances in the Gospels. And with them we may put the parable of the man "who fell among robbers," and was left half-dead between Jerusalem and Jericho; for no doubt the parable, like all Christs parables, is founded on fact, and is no mere imaginary picture. In the Acts we have Theudas with his four hundred followers (B.C. 4), Judas of Galilee (A.D. 6), and the Egyptian with his four thousand "Assassins," or "Sicarii" (A.D. 58); to whom we may add the forty who conspired to assassinate St. Paul. {Act_5:36-37; Act_21:38; Act_23:12-21} And Josephus tells us of another Theudas, who was captured and put to death with many of his followers by the Roman Procurator Cuspius Fadus (cir. A.D. 45); and he also states that about fifty years earlier, under Varus, there were endless disorders in Judea, sedition and robbery being almost chronic. The brigands inflicted a certain amount of damage on the Romans, but the murders which they committed were on their fellow-countrymen the Jews ("Ant.," 17. 10:4, 8; 20. 5:1).
In either of these ways, therefore, the literal interpretation of "kill" makes good sense; and we are not justified in saying, with Calvin, that "kill in no way suits the context." Calvin, with Erasmus, Beza, Hornejus, and others, adopts the violent expedient of correcting the Greek from "kill" (φονευετε) to "envy" (φθονειτε), a reading for which not a single MS., version, or Father can be quoted. It is accepted, however, by Tyndale and Cranmer and in the Genevan Bible, all of which have, "Ye envy and have indignation, and cannot obtain." Wiclif and the Rhemish of course hold to the occiditis of the Vulgate, the one with "slay," and the other with "kill."
But although the literal interpretation yields good sense, it is perhaps not the best interpretation. It was pointed out above that "ye kill" balances "ye fight and war," and that "wars and fightings" evidently are not to be understood literally, as the context shows. If then, "ye fight and war" means "ye quarrel, and dispute, and intrigue, and go to law with one another," ought not "ye kill" to be explained in a similar way? Christ had said, "Ye have beard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: but I say unto you, That every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment". {Mat_5:21-22} And St. John tells us that "every one who hateth his brother is a murderer". {1Jn_3:15} "Every one who hateth" (πας ο μισων) is an uncompromising expression, and it covers all that St. James says here. Just as the cherished lustful thought is adultery in the heart, {Mat_5:28} so cherished hatred is murder in the heart.
But there is an explanation, half literal and half metaphorical, which is well worth considering. It has been pointed out how frequently St. James seems to have portions of the Book of Ecclesiasticus in his mind. We read there that "the bread of the needy is the life of the poor: he that defraudeth him thereof is a man of blood. He that taketh away his neighbors living slayeth him (φουεων); and he that defraudeth the laborer of his hire is a bloodshedder" (34:21, 22). If St. James was familiar with these words, and still more if he could count on his readers also being familiar with them, might he not mean, "Ye lust, and have not; and then, to gratify your desire, you deprive the poor of his living"? Even Deu_24:6 might suffice to give rise to such a strong method of expression: "No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a mans life to pledge." Throughout this section the language used is strong, as if the writer felt very strongly about the evils which he condemns.
While "ye lust, and have not, and thereupon take a mans livelihood from him," would refer specially to possessions, "Ye covet (or envy) and cannot obtain, and thereupon fight and war," might refer specially to honors, posts, and party advantages. The word rendered "covet" (ζηλουτε) is that which describes the thing which love never does: "Love envieth not". {1Co_13:4} When St. James was speaking of the wisdom from Jam_3:14-16 the kind of quarrels which he had chiefly in view were party controversies, as was natural after treating just before of sins of the tongue. Here the wars and fightings are not so much about matters of controversy as those things which minister to a mans "pleasures," his avarice, his sensuality, and his ambition.
How is it that they have not all that they want? How is it that there is any need to despoil others, or to contend fiercely with them for possession? "Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss." That is the secret of these gnawing wants and. lawless cravings. They do not try to supply their needs in a way that would cause loss to no one, viz., by prayer to God; they prefer to employ violence and craft against one another. Or if they do pray for the supply of their earthly needs, they obtain nothing, because they pray with evil intent. To pray without the spirit of prayer is to court failure. That Gods will may be done, and His Name glorified, is the proper end of all prayer. To pray simply that our wishes may be satisfied is not a prayer to which fulfillment has been promised; still less can this be the case when our wishes are for the gratification of our lusts. Prayer for advance in holiness we may be sure is in accordance with Gods will. About prayer for earthly advantages we cannot be sure; but we may pray for such things so far as they are to His glory and our own spiritual welfare. Prayer for earthly goods, which are to be used as instruments, not of His pleasure, but of ours, we may be sure is not in accordance with His will. To such a prayer we need expect no answer, or an answer which at the same time is a judgment; for the fulfillment of an unrighteous prayer is sometimes its most fitting punishment.
St. James is not blaming his readers for asking God to give them worldly prosperity. About the lawfulness of praying for temporal blessings, whether for ourselves or for others, there is no question. St. John prays that Gaius "in all things may prosper and be in health, even as his soul prospereth," {3Jn_1:2} and St. James plainly implies that when one has temporal needs one ought to bring them before God in prayer, only with a right purpose and in a right spirit. In the next chapter he specially recommends prayer for the recovery of the sick. The asking amiss consists not in asking for temporal things, but in seeking them for a wrong purpose, viz., that they may be squandered in a life of self-indulgence. The right purpose is to enable us to serve God better. Temporal necessities are often a hindrance to good service, and then it is right to ask God to relieve them. But in all such things the rule laid down by Christ is the safe one, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." A life consecrated to the service of God is the best prayer for temporal blessings. Prayer that is offered in a grasping spirit is like that of the bandit for the success of his raids.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1–3. Whence come wars and fightings? Peace has been…
1–3. Whence come wars and fightings? Peace has been spoken at close of chapter 3, but the world is full of strife. Whence is it? James shows it is due to human passions. Among you? James was so Jewish, though a Christian, that sometimes he looked beyond the church to his fleshly brethren. He here seems to address them like another Amos, or Jeremiah. Even of your own lusts. They are due to insatiate desires.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Jas_4:1. Lusts.—Pleasures, but viewed on their evil side. Desires…
THE LOWER AND THE HIGHER LIFE
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
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Jas_4:1. Lusts.—Pleasures, but viewed on their evil side. Desires that are ill regulated. Compare 1Pe_2:11; Rom_7:23. Evidently James was much distressed by the strife of parties, and the personal quarrellings, in the Jewish communities. Disputing was a besetting sin of the Jewish race. Members.—Organs of sense and action. “The conflict within, in which the evil passion gets the mastery, causes a predisposition to contention, and produces aggression on the well-being and property of others” (Webster).
Jas_4:2. Desire to have.—Covet. Ask not.—They grasped at things themselves, and did not wait on God for them, or ask His guidance and help in the endeavour to obtain them.
Jas_4:3. Consume it.—“Spend it in the midst of your [selfish] pleasures.” To pray for that which is but to satisfy our lower, baser nature can never be Christian prayer.
Jas_4:4.—Omit the word “adulterers.” The term is probably used metaphorically, to describe idolatry and apostasy from the worship of Jehovah. But sins of sensuality in the Christian Church caused much anxiety to the apostles. Compare Mat_12:39. Plumptre explains the feminine form thus, “In this subserviency to pleasures St. James sees that which, though united with crimes of violence, is yet essentially effeminate.” Will be.—Willeth to be; wisheth to be. Is the enemy.—“Makes himself the.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jas_4:1-4
The Secret Causes of Social Contentions.—St. James closes the previous chapter with a description of the characteristic features of practical religious wisdom, the spirit which alone can enable a man to shape his conduct and order his relationships aright. It is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be intreated.” And he adds that “the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for them that make peace.” But when he turns from things as they should be to things as they are, he becomes sadly distressed and anxious. Contentions, heart-burnings, enmities, sectarian rivalries, distinguished the Hebrew Christian communities to whom he wrote. Men were struggling for pre-eminence as teachers, each with his doctrine and interpretation. Thence came wranglings and debates, in which men easily lost their temper and self-control. St. James is very severe on the wranglers, intimating that their spirit was unworthy of regenerate persons. They could be thinking only of gratifying their lower natures. By “wars” here we are not to understand the conflicts of nations, but protracted, violent, widespread, social contentions and disputes; the conflicts caused by sectarian rivalries and disputatious characters. We can form some idea of the condition of the Hebrew Christian Churches by remembering what commotions were made in the Churches St. Paul founded by the visits of the bigoted Jewish teachers. The element of contention is one in which the Christian spirit cannot flourish; and the mischief of it may clearly be seen in the roots out of which it usually springs, and by which it is sustained. According to St. James, the secret causes of failing to gain and keep the spirit of peace in Christian communities are three:
(1) selfish desires;
(2) selfish efforts;
(3) selfish prayers.
I. One secret of contention is our selfish desires.—“Whence come wars and whence come fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members?” The Revised Version makes a useful alteration in putting “pleasures” in place of “lusts,” because the word “lusts” has come to have almost exclusive reference to sensual passions, and St. James intended to include all forms of self-pleasing. St. Peter writes of the “fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” And St. Paul saw “another law” in his members, “warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which was in his members.” And our Divine Lord taught that “out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings: these are the things which defile the man.” It is not wrong to have desires. It is wrong not to have them in proper control. Man is a being of desires. In the restlessness of his wantings lies the possibility of his improvements. But we need to distinguish carefully between the natural desires which, when duly met, bring to men healthy, satisfying, and educating pleasures, and those unnatural, morbid, exaggerated desires which follow upon men’s loss of self-restraint through giving way to self-willedness and sin. But St. James only hints at these general considerations. In relation to quarrellings, contentions, and wars, he points out that it is not so much the unrestrainedness of the desires, as the selfishness of the desires, that is the root and cause of evil. The very essence of Christianity is seen in its Founder, who never, in any sense, got, or tried to get, anything for Himself: who “was rich, yet for our sakes became poor”; who “gave His life a ransom for us”; “who thought it not a thing to be held fast, the being equal with God; but emptied Himself, and made Himself of no reputation, that He might serve and save others.” Or to express it in the forms of our text, His desires were wholly unselfish, and so never did cause contentions, and never could. No matter where you may find disputings and conflicts—in families, businesses, society, churches, or nations—you will almost always discover that somebody wants something altogether for himself, and persists in pressing his want against the interests of everybody else. That spirit may be met and rebuked from the merely moral and social standpoints; but we meet and rebuke it from the Christian standpoint. It is essentially un-Christian—altogether unworthy of any one who bears the Christ-name. It is well, however, for us to clearly understand that becoming a Christian never crushes down a man’s desires, unless they are postively wrong. It turns them into a new direction, but keeps, and even augments, their force. This consideration comes in to tone all personal wishes—“Will my gaining these things limit or hinder or injure any one else? It is more important that others should be helped and cheered and blessed than that I should be.” When that unselfish spirit is upon all our longings and desires, it is absolutely certain that we shall not be in any sphere of life the cause of contention and conflict. When even our natural and proper desires, even for personal pleasure, are put into the holy restraints of a Christ-like unselfishness, we become peacemakers wherever we go. Or as St. James puts it, so long as there is a war of desires within us, we shall be a cause of war in the spheres around us. Subdue the warfare within us, bring the desires into the obedience of Christ, tone them with the spirit of Christ, and they may not only shut the doors of the temple of Janus, they may wall them up for ever. The world’s peace will have come.
II. Another secret of contention is our selfish efforts.—Not only the wants are selfish, but there is a wrong and self-trusting character about the ways in which we seek to supply the wants. There is a self-reliant pushing and striving and overriding or driving aside of others which is a most fruitful source of bickerings and disputes. When a man wants something, means to get it by his own efforts, and to master everybody and everything that stands in his way, he is sure to make commotion and heart-burning wherever he goes. St. James expresses this selfish effort of men to force through their inordinate, unrestrained, and self-interested desires in very strong language. “Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and covet [are jealous], and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not.” “When desire becomes the master-passion of a man’s soul, it hurries him on to crimes from which he would at first have shrunk,” as may be illustrated in the cases of David, Judas Iscariot, and Ananias with Sapphira. In saying, “Ye kill,” St. James may mean only, “Ye would even go so far as that to gain your ends.” And we can but be reminded how true it is that in the zeal of the sectarian bigot and the heresy-monger (persons whom St. James has in mind) reputations have often been killed, lives embittered, and worse than death endured. Dean Plumptre says, “There seems, at first, something almost incredible in the thought, that the believers to whom St. James wrote could be guilty of such crimes; but Jewish society was at that time rife with atrocities of like nature, and men, nominally disciples of Christ, might then, as in later times, sink to its level.” According to tradition, St. James himself fell a victim to the passions he thus assails, probably at the hands of a zealot mob. Readers of Josephus are familiar with the bands of zealots and sicarii, who were prominent in the tumults preceding the final siege of Jerusalem. Endeavouring to gain the application of St. James’s teaching to those who live in quieter times, yet are in peril of the same temptations, we may see that he reproves our striving to get what we want in our own self-strength, without any reference of the matter to God, and without dependence for help upon God. He pictures the man of unrestrained desires pushing about, and pushing other people about, but failing to gain what he wants. “Ye have not, because ye ask not.” Striving as earnest endeavour is quite right. We ought to do what we do “with both hands earnestly.” But it must not be self-reliant striving, if we mean it to be Christian. It must be energy, enterprise, perseverance, resoluteness after prayer, and in the spirit of prayer, which keeps us dependent on God, and within His holy restrainings and inspirings.
III. Yet another secret of contention is our selfish prayers.—“Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures.” A self-centred purpose spoils prayer. We may ask for things that we need, but we may not ask for the supply of our mere self-indulgences. The desire must be right, and in right restraint, if we present it in prayer at all. The desire must be right in a wide and not in a narrow, selfish sense, if God is to answer it at all.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Jas_4:1. The Soldiers of the Devil’s Army.—The desires of various sorts of pleasures are, like soldiers of the devil’s army, posted and picketed all over us, in the hope of winning our members, and so ourselves, back to his allegiance, which we have renounced in our baptism.—Bishop Moberly.
The Sources of War.—One great source of war is the love of excitement, of emotion, of strong interests. Illustrate from love of the chase. Another is the passion for superiority, for triumph, for power. There is a predominance of this passion in rulers. Another is admiration of the brilliant qualities displayed in war. This prevents our receiving a due impression of its crimes and miseries. Another is false patriotism. And another is the impressions we receive in early life. The community possesses indisputable right to resort to war of defence, when all other means have failed for securing its continued existence. The earth holds not a more abandoned monster than the sovereign who, entrusted with the dearest interests of a people, commits them to the dreadful hazards of war, that he may extend his prostituted power, and fill the earth with his worthless name. Therefore we should teach true sentiments as to the honour of kings and the glory of nations.—W. E. Charming, D.D.
The Christian View of Public War.—The text does not directly refer to national wars, but to the conflicts and contentions that arise among Christians and in Christian Churches. Yet it expresses a principle which is operating in every sphere—the small spheres of the individual, the family, the Church, and the larger sphere of nations. War can never on both sides be right. In the terrible scenes of war we may see the workings of human lust, and thereby learn to trace aright the evil workings of lust everywhere. War usually is the expression of one man’s sin. It is the truly awful result of some human lust, some self-pleasing, some self-aggrandisement. A fuller discernment of the causes out of which all wars and fightings spring prepares the way for the working of the Christian spirit, which, dethroning lust, and enthroning God, and in Him goodness, moral excellence, and brotherhood, hastens on the time when nations shall learn war no more. It is important that there should be given to men vivid, forcible illustrations of the fearful majesty of power lying in human sin. God writes the evil of sin in famine, earthquake, disease, and death, But it seems as though man would not read God’s writing; so he writes for himself in soldiers’ blood, and widows’ wail, and orphans’ tear, and wasted lands, and rifled treasuries, and ruined commerce, and trodden harvests, and broken hearts, the evil of sin. Let those who watch man writing read correctly, and learn the abominableness of human lust and sin, and hail the coming of Him who kills sin at its root—kills the lust—and kills with it every leaf and flower and fruit of war—social, ecclesiastical, national—and reigns at last as “Prince of peace.”
Jas_4:1-2. The Root-cause of War.—St. James wrote his epistle during those years of national decline and social anarchy that immediately preceded the final destruction of the Holy City. There was much sectarian strife, bitter party feeling, and there was even murderous violence, and the spirit of the times seems to have seriously affected the Christian communities. Internal conflicts and sectarian rivalries seriously threatened the integrity of the Jewish nation. Self-seeking and personal strife were imperilling the Christian Churches. The first bishop of Jerusalem puts his hand to the work of staying this strife. He arrests the men that love and seek war, and bids them think—bids them see the essential evil of war—all kinds of war—in the vileness of the root out of which it all springs. He lifts off and puts away at once all the false glamour of war; he does not even stop to impress his readers with details of the shuddering horrors of battle-fields and soldiers’ hospitals; he goes right to the very heart of the matter; compels us to see the root-wrong, the lusting, the coveting, out of which all contention, all war, comes. A great modern writer says: “That man, born of woman, bound by ties of brotherhood to man, and commanded by an inward law and the voice of God to love and to do good, should, through selfishness, pride, revenge, inflict these agonies, shed these torrents of blood—here is an evil which combines with exquisite suffering, fiendish guilt. All other evils fade before it.”
I. The root-principle of war stated.—It is lusting. It is covetousness. It is the desire—the violent, unrestrained desire—to have for self. It is the exclusion of all love for, all thought of, or care concerning, others. It is the determination to get, whoever may have to suffer through our getting; to push roughly aside all who stand in the way of our acquisition. It is the wilful forgetfulness that other people have their rights as well as we. Surely all this spirit is of the earth, earthy. It is the foul blossoming of human corruption. All such lustings are of their father the devil. His stamp is on them all. St. James strikes right home, past all men’s delusions and excuses, to the inmost source of all contentions and bickerings and wars. He is true if his principle be applied to family life. What broke up Isaac’s home, in the olden days, and set brothers at enmity, but Jacob’s desire to have for self? What broke up David’s family life but the envy of his sons? Try all cases of family warfare that have come within your observation. Down at the bottom there is always found to lie somebody’s grasping for self. He is true if his principle be applied to Church life. These bad contentions that distress Churches always follow upon some one’s pressing his own will, his own interests, his own party, before the general well-being. Nobody ever fights in a Christian Church who really wants to obtain the greatest good for the whole. It is always a class, a section, or an individual, seeking its own things. What makes business life so full of struggle in our day? The same thing—the desire to have. Aggravation at the prosperity of another, if in any sense it can be supposed to cross and check our own.
II. The root-principle of war is absolutely opposed to the root-principle of Christianity.—The one principle is—Lusting to possess; the other principle is—Longing to give away. And you can never make these two principles dwell together in peace. The one is—Get for self, no matter who goes down through the getting; the other is—“Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” Which is the corrupt and devilish principle? Which is radiant with the sweet light of God, and Christ, and heaven, and peace? The unselfish, Christ-like care for others carries its healing balm, its peace-preserving virtues, into every family, stilling all tumult, knitting heart to heart, and life to life, until the earth-home bears a suggestion of the many-mansioned home above, where all is peace, because each serves the other. It is the care for the whole that settles the stormy strife of Churches, and ensures that atmosphere of peace in which alone noble Christian work can ever be done.
Jas_4:3. Our Failures in Prayer.—R.V. “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures.” St. James gives, sharply and suggestively, the explanation of much that is lacking in Christian life. We fail to obtain so many things that we ask for. We fret over the lack; but we often fail to see the reasons for the lack, and fail to see that the reasons may lie altogether in ourselves. Even when we do not err by failing to ask, we may err, and make such answer as we wish to obtain impossible, by asking amiss. What then may possibly be wrong about even our Christian prayers, which may suffice to explain our failure to receive Divine benedictions?
1. They are wrong if offered in the mere routine of habit. We have prayed morning and night ever since we prayed at our mother’s knee, and we may have come to utter a mere formula; to go through a routine of words which mean nothing in particular, and which there is no particular reason for God to take notice of. The daily prayer habit is not indeed without a value of its own; but it has no precise value as request that calls for Divine attention. All it wants, and all it asks, from God is just a smile as He passes. When daily prayer is at its best, it is little more than a daily committing of ourselves to the Divine keeping and care. But if it ceased to be a mere routine of habit, if it came to be a reality of supplication and intercession, might we not get free of one form of “asking amiss,” and find that, asking aright, we received, and life became altogether fuller of precise daily Divine benedictions?
2. They are wrong if offered insincerely. Prayers are always made worthless and ineffective, when there is self-consciousness in them; when our real aim is to make a show of our piety, or to be seen of men. Our Lord severely reproved all prayer that had in it the characteristic Pharisaic taint. When a man prays in order to show his piety, that is what God hears him pray, and not the things he seems to ask for; and the answer to his prayer is only this—praise and reward for his show of piety; and God never can give that, so the insincere man “asks and receives not, because he asks amiss.” Beware then of all “beautiful prayers”! Beware of your own “beautiful prayers”; for they only mean that you want God to praise you, and it would be no blessing to you if He did. Beware of other people’s beautiful prayers; for they only mean that they want you and God together to praise and admire them. And they who pray them, and you who hear them, are best blessed when, asking in that style, you receive not.
3. They are wrong if offered conventionally. This is very different from insincerely. There is grave danger of our asking for things so often that we cease to put any mind into the asking. They become the proper things to say, so they are said, but have no practical inspiring power in them; they have become no more than pious sentiments conventionally uttered. Mark Guy Pearse, in his Dan’l Quorm, puts this peril of our praying in such a crisp and suggestive way, that the passage may be given by way of illustration. Quaint Dan’l Quorm is represented as saying: “I happened once to be stayin’ with a gentleman—a long way from here—a very religious kind of a man he was, and in the mornin’ he began the day with a long family prayer that we might be kep’ from sin, and might have a Christ-like spirit, and the ‘mind that was also in Christ Jesus,’ and that we might have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us. A beautiful prayer it was, and thinks I, What a good kind of man you must be! But about an hour after I happened to be comin’ along the farm, and I heard him hollerin’, and scoldin’, and goin’ on, findin’ fault with everybody and everythin’. And when I came into the house with ’en he began again. Nothing was right, and he was so impatient and so quick-tempered. ‘’Tis very provokin’ to be annoyed in this way, Dan’l. I don’t know what servants in these days be good for but to worry and vex one, with their idle, slovenly ways.’ I didn’t say nothing for a minute or two. And then I says, ‘You must be very much disappointed, sir.’ ‘How so, Dan’l? Disappointed?’ ‘I thought you were expecting to receive a very valuable present this morning, sir, and I see it hasn’t come.’ ‘Present, Dan’l’; and he scratched his head, as much as to say, ‘Whatever can the man be talkin’ about?’ ‘I certainly heard you speakin’ of it, sir,’ I says, quite coolly. ‘Heard me speak of a valuable present. Why, Dan’l, you must be dreamin’. I’ve never thought of such a thing.’ ‘Perhaps not, sir; but you’ve talked about it; and I hoped it would come whilst I was here, for I should dearly like to see it.’ He was gettin’ angry with me now, so I thought I would explain. ‘You know, sir, this mornin’ you prayed for a Christ-like spirit, and the mind that was in Jesus, and the love of God shed abroad in your heart.’ ‘Oh, that’s what you mean, is it!’ And he spoke as if that weren’t anything at all. ‘Now, sir, wouldn’t you rather be surprised if your prayer was to be answered? If you were to feel a nice, gentle, lovin’ kind of a spirit comin’ down upon you, all patient and forgivin’ and kind? Why, sir, wouldn’t you come to be quite frightened like; and you’d come in, and sit down all in a faint, and reckon you must be a-goin’ to die, because you felt so heavenly-minded?’ He didn’t like it very much,” said Dan’l, “but I delivered my testimony, and learnt a lesson for myself too. We should stare very often if the Lord was to answer our prayers.”
4. Our prayers are also wrong if they are offered with ulterior aims. St. James was evidently thinking of cases in which men asked for what was very necessary in the endeavour to live the Christian life, meet the Christian obligations, and render the Christian service; but they did not intend to use what they might gain in answer in these spheres. They purposed to spend it on their own pleasures. The great Heart-Searcher, to whom our prayers are addressed, is in no way deceived, and makes no mistakes. We cannot have from Him what we intend to use for other things than those we ask them for. The prodigal son asked for his portion, and the father supposed he was going to set up in business for himself. That prodigal had an ulterior aim; he meant to see a bit of life, and enjoy himself in the indulgence of his youthful passions; and his prayer to his father had better not have been answered. God never answers, save in judgment, the prayer of a divided purpose.
5. It is but dealing with a familiar point, which gains full treatment elsewhere, to add that prayer is wrong if offered without attendant watching for the answers. Nothing could be more humiliating to a Christian man than for him to be shown the record of the many petitions that he had offered, of which he had thought no more after they were offered. He does not know whether God answered them or not; he never took the trouble to notice. Very possibly he has had many and many a blessing in his life, which he never thought of as being what it really was, a gracious answer to his prayers. We have not. We wish we had. But why do we lack? Why do we fail to obtain the temporal and spiritual blessings that would be the enrichment of our lives? It is all explained. St. James says that two things will sufficiently explain it all. “We ask not”; or else, “We ask amiss.” If the lack and failure are explained, the remedy is suggested in the explanation. It also is twofold. Pray; and pray aright. “For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
Jas_4:4. The Marriage Figure of Unfaithfulness to God.—The prophetical books make constant use of the marriage figure. The nation of Israel is thought of as bound to Jehovah with bonds as close as those with which a wife is bound to her husband. The bond is so suitable to represent the union of the nation with Jehovah, because it rests upon mutual affection; upon the love of the husband for the wife as well as that of the wife for the husband. In the East there is an almost exaggerated jealousy characteristic of husbands, which is illustrated in the case of an Eastern merchant who, on return after a six months’ absence from home, offered public thanksgivings because his wife had never once left the house while he was away.
I. The tie binding the soul to God is like that binding wife to husband.—It implies a gracious selection and calling on the part of God. A loving response on the part of the soul. Mutual pledges taken; a lifelong covenant entered into. A tie which should become closer day by day as each discovers the worth and goodness of the other.
II. The peril of breaking the tie binding the soul to God is like the peril of breaking the tie binding the wife to the husband.—It is the attraction of some other love. In the case of man and woman, either may be drawn aside into heart, or life, unfaithfulness. We can only think of man as possibly unfaithful to God; never of God as unfaithful to man. The world is the comprehensive term that gathers up the things that draw men away from God. And we can think of the various forms in which the world presents its attractions. Friendship, implying the going out of our heart to the world, is enmity with God, just as when a wife takes up with another love her own husband becomes distasteful to her.
III. The consequences of breaking the tie binding us to God are like the consequences of breaking the tie binding the wife to the husband.—The husband is dishonoured. The home is broken up. The wife is ruined. There are natural penalties that fall on the unfaithful; and the just judgments of God are added to the natural penalties.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v1 1. “Whence come wars and fightings within you?” James…
ARGUMENT 10
SPIRITUAL WEDLOCK
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1. “Whence come wars and fightings within you?” James here enters into a powerful argument against inbred sin. The heart of the unsanctified soon becomes the scene of a terrible civil war. Paul, in Colossians 3, describes the members of Adam the first, anger, wrath, malice, envy, jealousy, revenge, and all the motley cohorts of malignant affections, ever and anon rising up and waging an exterminating war against the grace imparted in regeneration.
2. Here is evidently a tacit allusion to those terrible wars that raged in Palestine immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.
3. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, in order that you may expend it in your pleasures.” God in great mercy keeps us poor that He may take us to heaven. If we had been rich the temptation to sensual pleasures would have defeated us, alienating us from God, and leading us off after the world.
4. “Ye adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity to God?” While the Church of God throughout the Bible is represented by a pure woman, the fallen Church is constantly emblematized by a harlot. So long as the Apostolic Church remained pure the world was arrayed against her, the Roman emperors doing their utmost for her extermination. When the awful Constantinian apostasy utterly derailed the Church from the glorious Apostolic doctrine of entire sanctification, she took the world, with its floods of corruption, into her pales, drifting fast into the sensualities and debaucheries of Romanism. “The friendship of the world” is the bane of the popular church at the present day, fast engulfing her informality and hypocrisy. “Therefore, whosoever may wish to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.” In Satan’s Eden conquest he conquered the world; not only taking it into his corrupt and polluted kingdom, but utterly alienating it from God, hence Ekklesia, the Church, means the people called out of the world and separated unto God; while hagiazo, sanctify, means to take the world out of us. Hence you see the irreconcilable disharmony of this fallen world with God and holiness. Ever since Satan succeeded in the abduction of this world from God he has powerfully and incessantly used it as a passport to hell. The Church at the present day is encumbered with mountains of worldliness, expediting them at race-horse speed to Romanism and Satan.
5. “Do you not know that the Scripture positively says, the Spirit who dwelleth in us desireth us unto jealousy?” This verse is the grand culmination of this powerful argument against inbred sin so vividly portrayed in spiritual wedlock. In regeneration the soul is betrothed to the spiritual Christ, and married in sanctification. In this argument we have a vivid description of the regenerated soul’s carnal lovers, still surviving in the heart and doing their utmost to prevail on that soul to enter into spiritual wedlock, consummating hopeless apostasy and damnation. The two years of the betrothal state are memorable in my history, because the lovers waiting my contemplated bride kept me in hot water, tortured with solicitude lest discarding me she might enter into wedlock with one of them. From our conversion the Holy Ghost is anxious to consummate nuptials in our sanctification. forever defeating and exterminating all of our carnal lovers. On the return of the Greek army from the memorable ten years’ siege and final destruction of Troy, the fleet of Ulysses was separated by a storm, tossed on unknown seas, and wrecked on foreign shores till ten years more had elapsed, giving him an absence of twenty years from his kingdom. Meanwhile his beautiful and accomplished queen, Penelope, was terribly beset by the young princes of Greece, night and day pressing their suit for her hand in wedlock, and at the same time year after year devouring the subsistence of her kingdom, assuring her that her husband has been buried in the dark, deep sea, and will never return again. In her desperation to postpone the suitors, whose military power she seriously feared, she resorts to a strategem, alleging that she was weaving a great web for a burial shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes, then venerable with years. The suitors, impatient and vexed over the postponement, in their nightly vigils at length discover that she raveled out at night what she had woven in the day, thus maneuvering to postpone the celebration of the nuptis. At the expiration of twenty years, behold, Ulysses arrives, slays all the suitors in a hand-to-hand combat, and takes possession of his kingdom. Now remember that you have an Omnipotent Ulysses, to whom, if you will be true, He will assuredly come in due time, slay all of your carnal lovers in a hand-to-hand fight and take you to His bosom to be His royal spouse forever. This wonderful verse says the Holy Ghost is jealous of all His rival suitors, i.e., this seductive group of worldly lovers. Will you not turn them all over to Him that He may slay them, and enter into heavenly wedlock with your soul?
6. He giveth more grace, i.e., the grace of sanctification to that of justification.
7. The devil is a coward and easily put to flight in every case of true heroism.
8. “Clean your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-souled people.” The sinner has one soul, and that is a bad one, transmitted from Satan by Adam the first. The sanctified man has one soul, and that is a good one, transmitted to him by Adam the Second. The unsanctified Christian is a double-souled man, having the carnal mind in a state of subjugation and the mind of Christ enthroned in the heart. James winds up the argument with an enthusiastic altar call to sinners for pardon and to Christians for sanctification. That is the true genius of the gospel, great altars crowded with sinners seeking justification and Christians seeking holiness.
9. “Be afflicted and mourn and weep: let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into sorrow.” James believed in the good old style mourner’s bench, where people weep, grieve, mourn and afflict themselves with the deepest sorrow, till Jesus comes to their relief and speaks their sins all forgiven till the sanctifying power sweeps down from heaven’s altars in showers of fire, consuming all hereditary depravity. You must remember also that this is also a mixed altar, in which sinners seeking pardon and double-minded Christians seeking sanctification are indiscriminately mixed up; meanwhile the billows of God’s free grace are rolling over them, regenerating the one and sanctifying the other.
10. “Humble yourself before the Lord and He will raise you up.” God’s ways are diametrically the opposite to man’s ways. When human pride wants to rise it climbs, only to fall and break its neck. When true consecration goes down to the bottom of humiliation’s holy valley, the Omnipotent Hand in due time lifts you up to the top of Pisgah. In this wonderful argument against inbred sin, we see it culminating in the spiritual wedlock of the soul and the utter defeat of all her carnal lovers amid a rousing altar service for the conversion of sinners and the sanctification of Christians, in which grace gloriously prevails and victory brightens on Immanuel’s banner.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Jas 4:11-12
Jas 4:11-12
Evil-speaking.
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Part of the Christian life has to do with the tongue, and looking at it in its social aspect, the greatest part. The ways in which the sin forbidden in the text may be committed are legion, and time would fail us in any attempt to give them even the barest enumeration.
I. The first and most absolute form in which we can speak evil of a brother is by uttering against him a wilfully false accusation. One could have wished, for the sake of the honour of our race, that such a deliberate sin had been impossible; but unfortunately it is so common and inveterate that a special law against it was uttered on Sinai, and written on the stony tablet by the finger of God. And of all sinners in the world, the liar is the greatest and the most hopeless. While every sin is bad enough, and needs the special mercy of Heaven for its forgiveness and the special help of Heaven for its cure and abandonment, lying seems to go deeper into the heart and to taint it more thoroughly than any other. And there is this terrible peculiarity about it, that, while it is a sin in itself, it is also a shield for every other sin. Lying often takes the form of evil-speaking; and then you have a double evil, an evil compounded of malice and falsehood. Every stone of falsehood we put into the walls of the temple of truth will crumble; its colour will strike through whatever paint we may put upon it; and the great Architect will have it taken down and replaced by a stone of truth.
II. Another form of evil speaking is that of exaggerating faults that are real. While there has been an immense sacrifice of truth, there has been, on the part of the thoughtless romancers, an entire oblivion of the golden law, "Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you."
III. Another way in which men speak evil one of another is by the unnecessary repetition of real faults. He that is without fault, let him first cast a stone at a faulty man. Of all species of conversation, there is none which is less profitable than that which consists of a morbid dissection of other men’s characters.
IV. Another manner in which men speak evil of each other is by a sort of mock sorrow. Under the hypocritical guise of pity and abhorrence of sin, they indulge in the mischievous yet too common propensity to publish the failings of some erring brother.
V. Another manner in which men speak evil of each other is by misrepresenting language, motive, or circumstances. The extent to which this special form of evil-speaking goes on is such that it may well create great distrust in any story we hear. Things may sometimes be worse than the rumour, but in the majority of cases I am persuaded they are not half so bad. We are not to speak evil of each other because we are brethren, and because to speak evil of our brother is to speak evil of the law which commands us to love our brother. Let us jealously guard each other’s reputations, each looking to it that his reputation shall be worth the guarding.
E. Mellor, In the Footsteps of Heroes, p. 138.
Jas 4:13-15
What is your life?
I. It is a very mysterious part of God’s dealings, this making our life so uncertain. If we were not so thoroughly accustomed to the fact, we should, I think, all consider it a very remarkable thing that God should make so much depend on man’s life, and yet should leave it so entirely unknown to him how long he will live. A man has a work to do, a great work, a work compared with which everything else he may do is mere trifling, and yet he does not know whether he shall have twenty years to do it in, or ten, or a few months or days.
II. It will throw all the light we require on this difficulty, if we remember one thing: that our state here is one of trial; we are not told to do this thing and that thing so much for their own sakes, as for the sake of seeing whether we will obey God or not. God’s creatures must not be independent, but must be tried and found faithful. No man has any right to say, "Lord, I will follow Thee, but first let me" do my own pleasure. No man may say, I will have my youth to myself, and serve God in my old age. It is an insult to our heavenly Father even to think of such a thing, and therefore what profit would it be to us to know the number of our days, that we might be certain how long we had to live!
III. The truth of the text is the best truth to carry about with us in order to enable us to set things at their right value. If the uncertainty and shortness of life act to make those unhappy who are negligent of the will of God, in the same proportion will it give peace and comfort to the minds of those who do set themselves to do His holy will, for the troubles of life will appear trifling to him who thinks of himself as a traveller on his road home; a person on a journey will put up with many inconveniences, because he says they cannot last long, and home will appear even pleasanter after a rough journey.
Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, vol. i., p. 257.
References: Jas 4:13-15.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 44. Jas 4:13-16.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 99.
Jas 4:14
I. First, what is the intention of life? No man of any consideration can look on "this life" for a moment without connecting it with "the life that is to come." It is evident that the first great intention of this "life" is education, so that as in a man’s "life" there is a portion upon this earth allotted to what is strictly preparatory to the rest, so is the whole immortal existence of a man arranged that there should be a period of instruction and cultivation, to be the education-time for his eternity. Allowing then that this "life" is education, education is made up of two parts: probation and cultivation. (1) Probation. I mean by that word that a man is to know himself, and to show to other men what he really is. That is probation. For the vindication of God’s justice, a man develops in this world; therefore God has placed him for a certain season to show what manner of man he is going to be. The circumstances in which he is put are exactly the best to unfold his character. There is not a point of "life" in which there is not a probationary intention. (2) Education is also cultivation. Partly by instilling knowledge, but still more by drawing out powers, by establishing good habits and exercising right feelings, a child is educated for his after-life. Just such is all the machinery which surrounds us in our present state. Every variety of fortune, every little minute occurrence of life, the Bible, the Holy Spirit, the very Atonement itself, are all calculated to train; they are all means to an end.
II. But now I pass to the second thought which lies coiled up in the great question, "What is life?"—its duration. At the most a span; and that span is held by a thread. There is no certainty of "tomorrow," and many years are out of the question. And, with the "angel of death" thus in the air, can you sit down at your pleasures, and no "blood," on "the door"? If that "blood" is once there, upon your heart, which is a man’s "door," the "door" of his existence, if "the blood of Christ" has ever been applied, everything is changed, age is happy, death is joy.
III. What is the real nature of "life"? All "life" is in the Father. Therefore he only "lives" who is united to the Father, and no man is united to the Father but by the power of "the blood of Jesus." Therefore "the blood of Jesus" is the essence of "life."
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 4th series, p. 107.
Jas 4:14
There is no topic, I suppose, on which we are all so heartily agreed as that of the uncertainty of human life, and yet perhaps there is no topic, unanimous as our agreement about it may be, which produces so little effect upon character and conduct.
I. The sacred writer of the text, a man of a very practical turn of mind, is speaking of the habit in which some persons indulge of laying their plans for the future without any reference whatever to the Divine goodwill and pleasure. They arrange, he says, a long course of procedure, extending over many weeks or even months; they calculate the steps they will take, the transactions in which they will engage, the bargains they will strike, and all as if they were perfectly certain of a continuance of life. But is this wise or right? It is neither. It is foolish and wicked. These persons are feeling and acting as if they were masters of the situation and could command from God a prolongation of existence until their work was done, whereas such is the uncertainty of life that they positively cannot reckon upon what a single day will bring forth. St. James would be the last man to condemn a reasonable foresight. He well knew that we must look forward, must provide, must lay plans for the future. It is not this that he condemns. But the thing which he visits with the severity of his denunciation is the practical leaving of God out of His own world and the practical taking of the management of affairs into our own hands, which is implied in all confident reckoning upon the continuance of life.
II. Consider the importance of the life which we are now living in the flesh when regarded as determining our future destiny for incalculable ages. Its very uncertainty is part of the merciful Divine plan for making us thoughtful. The uncertainty is the very thing we want for rousing us to earnest seeking after salvation. When we feel it is probable that we shall continue to live, and yet possible that we may die at any time, we are in the very best state of mind for attending to religion.
G. Calthrop, Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 899.
References: Jas 4:14.—E. Carr Glyn, Church of England Pulpit, vol. i., p. 49; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1773; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 351. Jas 4:17.—J. H. Thorn, Laws of Life, 2nd series, p. 91. Jas 5:7.—J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. i., p. 25; H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxiv., p. 385; Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 340.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Denunciation of Greed and Love of Pleasure
Denunciation of Greed and Love of Pleasure
1. Lusts] better, 'pleasures.'
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2. 'You eagerly desire something which another has and you have not. This unregulated desire may lead to hate and even murder (cp. Ahab, 1 Kings 21), but even so your covetous desires go on; they grow by what they feed on. Still you have not got your desire. Then comes the wholesale murder of unjust war; and yet you are unsatisfied, because you try to get things for yourselves, instead of asking God for them.' The chief difficulty of this passage lies in the words 'ye kill.' It has been argued that the words as they stand are out of place, and that the early Christians of St. James's time could not have been guilty of murder. It has been suggested that the true reading is a word translated 'ye are envious.' But, (1) while a Christian in these first days might not have been guilty of actual murder, he might well have given way to those feelings of hate which lead to murder ('Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer,' 1Jn_3:15); and, (2) the Epistle was not meant exclusively for Christian Jews. In the Jewish society of St. James's day murder was frequently the first means by which a man sought to gratify his desires (Mar_15:7; Act_21:38; Act_23:14). With a passionate people like the Jews there was always a danger of a sudden attack and murder.
4. Adulterers and adulteresses] RV 'adulteresses' (without 'adulterers and'), meaning, of course, those who have forsaken God. The thought is very common in the OT. (Isa_57:3-9; Jer_3:20; Ezekiel 16 Hosea 2). It is also found in Mat_12:39. The metaphor of the Church as the bride of Christ occurs in Eph_5:22 and other passages of the NT.
5. The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy] better, 'God' longeth eagerly for the spirit that He planted in us.' St. James is here alluding to several passages in the OT. rather than quoting accurately. The thought is found in Exo_20:5; Exo_34:14; Deu_4:24. 'God is a jealous God, but His jealous love is very different from that of man. It shows itself in the good gift of more grace. He longs that the spirit of man should be drawn more closely to Him, and become like Him.' The above is the best rendering of a disputed passage. Others translate, 'The (Holy) Spirit which He made to dwell in us yearns for us.' But there does not seem to be any specific reference to the work of the Holy Spirit in this passage.
7-12. Duty to God—humility, sincerity, repentance. Duty to man—to live in love, and refrain from slander and fault-finding.
8. Double minded] Notice the recurrence of the keynote struck in Jam_1:8.
9. Heaviness] better, 'dejection.'
11. When a man speaks against his brother he is practically condemning the Law of Love, and thus arrogating to himself the office of a judge. In criticising that Law he is virtually criticising the divine Lawgiver.
13-C. Jam_5:6. Stern denunciation of the presumption and tyranny of the rich. From the Old and NT. it may be gathered that, on the whole, wealth was misused by the Jews, and that therefore the 'mammon of unrighteousness' was an occasion of sin and a terrible temptation. St. James's teaching about wealth is put in a brief, uncompromising form, without limitations or exceptions. The possession of riches is regarded as a danger. But that a Christian might possess wealth, if only he recognised that he was a steward of it (Luk_16:1-12), is clear from passages like 1Ti_6:17-19. Zac-chæus (Luk_19:1-9) and Joseph of Arimathæa (Mat_27:57) were both rich, and both disciples.
13. Such a city] RV 'this city.' The presumption rebuked is that of the rich (? non-Christian) Jewish merchant who travelled for purposes of gain.
14. What is your life? It is even a vapour] RV 'Ye are a vapour.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v1 (See Scofield "1Jn 3:7").
righteousness
(See Scofield "1Jn 3:7").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. Fightings and worldliness rebuked (Jas 4:1-6)
IV. FURTHER EXHORTATIONS TO RIGHT LIVING
CHAPTER 4
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1. Fightings and worldliness rebuked (Jas 4:1-6)
2. The Godly walk (Jas 4:7-17)
Jas 4:1-6
A strong rebuke follows the statements concerning the wisdom from beneath and the wisdom from above. It must be borne in mind that these exhortations are addressed to the twelve tribes scattered abroad; to say that these words mean believers only would be a serious mistake; while Christians are contemplated, those of the tribes of Israel who are not believers are equally in view. It applies therefore to those who were born of God, real believers, and to those who were not, an entirely different matter from the Pauline Epistles, which are exclusively addressed to the saints.
There was much strife and contention amongst them. Whence come wars and fightings? Certainly not from the wisdom which is above, which is first pure and then peaceable. But wars and fightings are the fruits of the old nature, the flesh. They come from the pleasures which war in the members. The gratification of the lusts of the natural man produces fightings and not the new nature, that which is from above; this includes all forms of lusts, not only those of the flesh, but the lust for power, the lust for preeminence and leadership, the lusts of the mind. “Ye lust and have not”; there is nothing that can satisfy the heart of man; any kind of lust will end in disappointment and remorse. “Ye kill and covet and cannot obtain.” This is the way of the world in sin and away from God; it shows that James speaks to the unbelieving of the twelve tribes, and pictures their condition. “Ye fight and war. Ye have not because ye ask not. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it in your pleasures.” The natural man is also religious and as such prays. But their prayers sprang from the old nature, the desires of the flesh; they received not because they asked amiss. They prayed for selfish things, incited by selfish motives, so that they might gratify their sinful natures. Even true believers often ask and receive not, because they ask amiss, out of selfish reasons, to minister to their own pleasures and gratification. If the Lord would answer such prayers He would minister to that which is evil.
The world and its unsatisfying pleasures controlled those described in the foregoing words, some of whom may have been professing believers. The wisdom which is earthly, sensual and demoniac, they followed. And now the writer breaks out in a passionate exclamation: “Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore would be the friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God.” Here others than unbelievers are contemplated. The sphere of the natural man is the world; his walk is according to the course of this world; he is governed by the lust of the flesh, the lust of eyes and the pride of life. As such he is an enemy of God by wicked works and by nature a child of wrath (Eph 2:1-3).
The true believer, saved by grace, is not of the world, even as our Lord was not of the world (Joh 17:16). Grace has severed the believer from the world; the cross of Christ has made him dead to the world and the world dead unto him. Hence the exhortation in John’s Epistle “Love not the world, neither the things of the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1Jn 2:15-16). And believers may turn back to the world, like Demas, and love it for a time. James calls such adulteresses; they leave Him to whom they are espoused, even Christ, and turn to another. The term must have reminded the Israelites of the Old Testament passages in which unfaithful, apostate Israel is pictured as an adulteress and playing the harlot (Jer 3:9; Eze 16:23; Hos 2:1-23). It is a solemn exhortation which every true believer should consider carefully; friendship with the world means enmity against God. Verse 5 should be rendered as follows: “Or think ye that the Scripture speaketh in vain? Doth the Spirit, who dwelleth in us, long unto envying?” All the Scriptures testify that worldliness and godliness cannot exist together; think ye then that these Scriptures speak in vain? And the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the believer, does not lust unto envy, for He opposes the flesh and those who walk in the Spirit do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. But he giveth more grace, yea grace sufficient to overcome by faith the world, for faith is the victory that overcomes the world. He quotes Pro 3:34. God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Jas 4:7-17
Exhortations to a godly, holy walk follow. Submit yourselves, therefore to God; be subject unto Him, have no friendship with the world, but be His friend. There is one who would drag the believer back into the world, as Pharaoh tried to get Israel back to Egypt. Guard against it by resisting the devil and he will flee from you. This is a blessed promise which all His faithful people have tested at all times. We are not to flee from the devil, but to resist him as we do so in the name of our Lord, the enemy will be helpless and flee from us. Another blessed exhortation follows. “Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you.” Next James addresses again those who had not yet fully turned to the Lord. It is a call to repentance. “Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall exalt you.”
The attitude towards other brethren is made clear in Jas 4:11-12: “Speak not one against another, brethren.” Speaking evil, the sin of the tongue is once more mentioned by James. There are seven verses in which exhortations to guard the tongue and speech are given: Jas 1:19; Jas 1:26; Jas 2:12; Jas 3:9; Jas 3:16; Jas 4:11 and Jas 5:9. It seems that this must have been the besetting sin of these believing Jews. Evil, of course, must always be judged, whether it is unsound doctrine or an evil conduct; this belongs to the responsibility of a believer. But God alone, the Righteous judge, knows the heart and its motives. Speaking against a brother and judging him, that is, pronouncing a sentence of condemnation upon him, is the same as speaking against the law and judging the law. But if one judges the law, the same is not a doer of the law, but a judge; doing this we take the place of Him who is both, the lawgiver and the judge, that is the Lord.
The final paragraph urges dependence on the Lord and warns against making plans for the future without looking to the Lord and His will concerning His people. “Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and buy and sell, and get gain; whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.” Such a language shows self-will, forgetfulness of God, and self-confidence. It is planning with God left out. No one knows what the morrow may bring forth; but God knows. “For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will and we live, we will also do this or that.”
The child of God who walks in godly fear, trusting the Lord, planning as under Him, will constantly remember that all depends on the Lord and on His will. It is a wholesome habit to add always, when we speak of the future, “if the Lord will and we live”; this is pleasing in His sight and a testimony of our submission to Him and dependence on Him. Otherwise it is the boasting, vain-gloriousness of the self-secure world, which boasts and plans, without thinking of God and His will. The last verse must not be detached from what goes on before. “To him, therefore, that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” Sin does not consist only in doing evil, but if we do not the good we know, it is also sin. If we do not act according to the fact that we are entirely dependent on God as to the future, we sin.
“This verse should forever settle the question of sinless perfection for a Christian: ‘To him who knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.’ This is much more, of course, than the prohibition of positive evil. There is a negative evil which we have carefully to keep before us. The responsibility of knowing what it is good to do is one that, while we may in a general way allow it, yet deserves far deeper consideration than we often would even desire to give it. How solemn it is to think of all the good that we might do, and yet have not done! How slow we are to recognize that this, too, is sin! We are so apt to claim for ourselves a kind of freedom here which is not Scriptural freedom; and there is no doubt, also, that we may abuse a text like this to legality, if there be legality in our hearts. We are to be drawn, not driven. Yet the neglect of that which is in our hand to do--which we, perhaps, do not realize our capacity for, and that only through a spirit of self-indulgence or a timidity which is not far removed from this--such neglect, how hard it is to free ourselves of it, and how much do we miss in this way of that which would be fruitful in blessing for ourselves as well as for others! for, indeed, we can never sow fruit of this kind without reaping what we have sown; and the good that we can do to others, even if it requires the most thorough self-sacrifice, yet will be found in the end to have yielded more than it cost, and to have wrought in the interests of him who has not considered even or sought this” (Numerical Bible).
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Caution against Worldly-Mindedness and Its Consequences.
Caution against Worldly-Mindedness and Its Consequences.
Against a lustful, quarrelsome disposition:
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v. 1. From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
v. 2. Ye lust and have not; ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
v. 3. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
v. 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
v. 5. Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
The tenor of this chapter is such as to have called forth the following remarks: "These verses reveal an appalling state of moral depravity in the Diaspora congregations; strife, self-indulgence, lust, murder, covetousness, adultery, envy, pride, and slander are rife; the conception of the nature of prayer seems to have been altogether wrong among these people, and they appear to have been given over wholly to a life of pleasure. " The rebuke of the apostle does not lack in sharpness: Whence do fights, whence do wrangles come in your midst? Is it not thence, namely, from the passions that wage war in your members? The situation in many of the Jewish Christian congregations was anything but what the Prince of Peace would advocate in His Church. There were continual bickerings, wranglings, quarrels, fights, without a chance for rest and peaceful growth, the same condition that is found in some Christian congregations also today. The apostle flatly tells his readers what the source is of all this disagreement and disorder, namely, the selfish desires, the evil lusts, the unrestrained passions which they permitted to wage war in their own members; they made no attempt to restrain the evil promptings of their heart, they made their members instruments of unrighteousness. See Rom 7:23; 1Co 9:7.
With dramatic fervor the apostle continues: You crave and do not have; you commit murder, and are full of envy, and cannot obtain it; you quarrel and fight. There can be no doubt that James is here throughout using the spiritual interpretation of the Law, calling the sins of desires and thoughts by their right name, and indicating their standing in the sight of God. The people to whom this letter was addressed were dissatisfied, they were full of desire for something else; their hopes and expectations were in a very hazy state, as is usually the case with people that are not content with their lot and believe themselves to be destined for higher things. Their hearts were full of murder and envy, they were always afraid that some other brother might attain to greater honor and prominence in the congregation, and the wish that he might be out of the way may often have been supplemented by plans for his removal. But with all the quarreling and fighting that was going on in their midst they were not gaining any spiritual advantage, their own disposition precluding the blessings of the Lord.
This condition was made still worse by another factor: You do not have on account of your not asking for it; you ask and do not receive, because you ask in a wrong manner, in order to spend it in the satisfying of your own lusts. In many cases even the formality of prayer was forgotten over the wrangling that was becoming ceaseless; and so, of course, the attainment of even good desires was out of the question. But even where the formality of prayer was observed, where they went through the gestures intended to accompany prayer, there was no chance of their being heard and receiving the object of their desires, because their prayer was made in the interest of their own selfishness, their object being to use the gifts which they might receive from God in the gratification of their own lusts; they wanted to waste His blessings in carrying out various schemes of their own, for their own benefit and aggrandizement.
In holy zeal the apostle warns them: Wanton creatures, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity toward God? If anyone, then, chooses to be a friend of the world, he is constituted an enemy of God. Adulterers and adulteresses the apostle calls his readers, speaking generally, for their behavior not only approached idolatry, which is spiritual adultery, but their attitude toward the world endangered also their bodily chastity. There was an increasing tendency in the congregations, just as there is today, to give up the solid front against the world and its pleasures; the lusts of the world were entering into the Church. Christians did not hesitate to seek the friendship of the children of the world in order to take part in the special delights of the flesh which the children of the world foster. But then, as today, it was true that every person that became guilty of such behavior thereby constituted himself an enemy of God, placed himself into direct opposition to God and His holy will, and took the first steps toward a life of idolatry.
With challenging fervor the apostle asks: Or do you suppose that the Scripture says in vain, Even unto jealous envy that Spirit which He made to dwell in us does yearn (for us)? Such behavior as the apostle has just described is absolutely incompatible with the ideals which the Lord holds out before the Christians in His Word. See Gal 5:17-21; Rom 8:6-8; 1Co 3:16. These and similar passages, which are found in many parts of Scriptures, indicate definitely that the Lord watches over the behavior of the Christians with jealous envy. The Holy Spirit who has come to dwell in our hearts strives unceasingly to have us acquire the same love for God and His holy will which He bears for us and for our highest development along spiritual lines. Any behavior on our part, therefore, that tends to dislodge the Holy Spirit from our hearts, will retard our spiritual growth.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v1 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
James rebukes these believers for their worldliness and their lack of humility. He again urges them to watch how they speak to and about each other.
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General Information:
In this section, the words "yourselves," "your," and "you" are plural and refer to the believers to whom James writes.
Where do quarrels and disputes among you come from?
The abstract nouns "quarrels" and "disputes" mean basically the same thing and can be translated with verbs. AT: "Why do you quarrel and dispute among yourselves?" or "Why do you fight among yourselves?" (See: Doublet and Abstract Nouns)
Do they not come from your desires that fight among your members?
James uses this question to rebuke his audience. This can be translated as a statement. AT: "They come from your evil desires for things, desires that fight among your members." or "They come from your desires for evil things, desires that fight among your members." (See: Rhetorical Question)
Do they not come from your desires that fight among your members?
James speaks of desires as they were enemies who waged war against the believers. In reality, of course, it is the people who have these desires who fight among themselves. AT: "They come from your desires for evil things, by which you end up harming each other" (See: Personification)
among your members
Possible meanings are 1) there is fighting among the local believers, or 2) the fighting, that is, the conflict, is inside each believer.
You kill and covet, and you are not able to obtain
The phrase "You kill" expresses how badly the people behave in order to get what they want. It can be translated as "You do all kinds of evil things to get what you cannot have" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)
You fight and quarrel
The words "fight" and "quarrel" mean basically the same thing. James uses them to emphasize how much the people argue among themselves. AT: "You constantly fight" (See: Doublet)
you ask badly
Possible meanings are 1) "you ask with wrong motives" or "you ask with bad attitudes" or 2) "you are asking for wrong things" or "you are asking for bad things"
translationWords
evil
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–2 4:1 quarrels and fights (literally wars and battles): James…
4:1 quarrels and fights (literally wars and battles): James uses military imagery to declare that their own evil desires at war within them were the immediate cause of the battles among church members. James uses the Greek word translated evil desires again in 4:3 (translated “pleasure”) to enclose the entire paragraph and indicate the source of conflict and unanswered prayer (Luke 8:14; Titus 3:3).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.