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James 4

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The Source of Conflict and Strife 1–3

1
Whence comewars and whence come fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members? ​
2
Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not.
3
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures. ​

Friendship with the World is Enmity with God 4–6

4
Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God. ​
5
Or think ye that the scripture speaketh in vain? Doth the spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envying? ​
6
But he giveth more grace. Wherefore the scripture saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. ​

Call to Submission and Repentance 7–10

7
Be subject therefore unto God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye doubleminded. ​
9
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. ​
10
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall exalt you.

Warning Against Judging Others 11–12

11
Speak not one against another, brethren. He that speaketh against a brother, or judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. ​
12
One only is the lawgiver and judge, even he who is able to save and to destroy: but who art thou that judgest thy neighbor? ​

The Danger of Presumptuous Planning 13–17

13
Come now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain: ​
14
whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. ​
15
For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that. ​
16
But now ye glory in your vauntings: all such glorying is evil.
17
To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for James 4

Verse 1

wars and fightings — Polemos is war and mache a battle or quarrel. Their source is 'your lusts' (hedone, pleasures) that 'war' (strateuomai, to serve as soldiers) in the members. Peter has the same verb: 'fleshly lusts, which war against the soul' (1 Pet 2:11), and Paul sees 'another law in my members, warring' (Rom 7:23).

Verse 3

ask amiss — Kakos, badly. The prayer is answered by its aim, and the purpose is 'that ye may consume it upon your lusts' (dapanao, to spend, as in Mark 5:26). John states the other side: 'if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us' (1 John 5:14). Verse 2 says it the other way, 'ye have not, because ye ask not.'

Verse 4

Ye adulterers and adulteresses — Moichos and moichalis, the two forms for the unfaithful of both sexes, language from Scripture's picture of God's people as a bride: 'as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me' (Jer 3:20). Philia, friendship, occurs only here in the New Testament, set against 'enmity' (echthra) with God.

Verse 5

The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy — No single passage reads this way word for word, so the verse sums up Scripture's teaching: the LORD is 'a jealous God' (Ex 20:5; 34:14), as the marriage picture of v.4 suggests. Readers differ whether 'the spirit' is the Holy Spirit's longing for his people or the human spirit's envy.

Verse 6

God resisteth the proud — The line is Prov 3:34, 'he giveth grace unto the lowly', and Peter takes it up in the same form: 'God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble' (1 Pet 5:5). Antitassomai is to set oneself in battle array against, the opposite of the 'wars' of v.1; 'proud' is huperephanos, one who shows himself above others.

Verse 8

Draw nigh to God — Engizo, to come near. The promise runs both ways: 'he will draw nigh to you', as Zech 1:3 says, 'Turn ye unto me… and I will turn unto you'. 'Cleanse your hands' and 'purify your hearts' match Ps 24:4, 'clean hands, and a pure heart'. Dipsychos, 'double minded', occurs only here and James 1:8, literally two-souled.

Verse 9

Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep — Talaiporeo, to be wretched, and katepheia, 'heaviness', a downcast face, each found only here in the New Testament. The command is the reverse of laughter that has not yet mourned: 'Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep' (Luke 6:25); the promise is 'Blessed are they that mourn' (Matt 5:4).

Verse 11

Speak not evil one of another — Katalaleo, to speak against; found elsewhere only in 1 Pet 2:12 and 3:16. To speak against a brother and judge him is to speak against the law that commands 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself' (Lev 19:18), which James calls 'the royal law' (James 2:8). The critic becomes 'not a doer of the law, but a judge'.

Verse 12

one lawgiver — Nomothetes is found only here in the New Testament. The title is the LORD's own: 'the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us' (Isa 33:22). 'Able to save and to destroy' recalls Matt 10:28, 'fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell'. The question is the one asked in Rom 14:4.

Verse 13

Go to now — Age, a call to attention, found only here and James 5:1. The plan is exact: 'To day or to morrow', 'a year', 'buy and sell, and get gain'. It is made with no word about the Lord; Solomon says, 'Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth' (Prov 27:1), and Luke 12:16–20 gives the rich man who planned the same way.

Verse 14

a vapour — Atmis, a breath of steam or smoke, found elsewhere only in Acts 2:19, 'vapour of smoke'. It 'appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away'. The Psalms say it of days: 'my days are consumed like smoke' (Ps 102:3), and 'thou hast made my days as an handbreadth' (Ps 39:5). The plans of v.13 rest on a life of this kind.

Verse 15

If the Lord will — The correction of v.13 is to say it. Paul uses it of his own plans: 'I will return again unto you, if God will' (Acts 18:21), and 'I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will' (1 Cor 4:19). It is the reverse of boasting about tomorrow: 'There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand' (Prov 19:21).

Verse 17

knoweth to do good, and doeth it not — Kalos, good, in the sense of right and fitting. The verse sums up the chapter: knowledge brings accountability. 'That servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself… shall be beaten with many stripes' (Luke 12:47); and 'If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth' (John 9:41).