James 4: Wars and Fightings Among You
1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? 6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
People "are constantly looking for more power, increased possessions and higher status.” (Donald C. Flemming) Personal safety above all! Consider the calls to national patriotism and pride and right to bear arms and the erecting of walls and stricter immigration laws. Or oil issues. Or trade embargoes. etc. Are these or other concerns moral issues or not? If not, let us err in favor of doing good, being willing to forfeit our rights, even to our own temporal detriment.
Christians, pick your spiritual battles and fight with a goodly spirit. “‘Where do wars and fights come from among you?’ Many supposed that the apostle refers here to wars between nations. “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 we now see manifest in America], and which perhaps led to scenes of violence, and to popular outbreaks among themselves.“ (Albert Barnes) Yet: “Roberts, quoting Arndt and Gingrich, noted that the Greek word for ‘fightings’ is used always in the plural and always of battles carried on with weapons.’ [J. W. Roberts] Thus other uses of this word in the New Testament substantiate this [Barnes'] meaning, as in 2 Corinthians 7:5; 2 Timothy 2:23, and Titus 3:9. Paul spoke of ‘fightings within and fears without.’... The invasion of Christian personality by evil influences contrary to it is a recurring problem in every generation; every Christian must fight and win the war spoken of in these verses.” (Coffman Commentary)
The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 2 Corinthians 10:4
The second half of the same verse provides the answer. “‘Do they not come from your desires for pleasure etc.?’ — ... 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.” (John Calvin)— “‘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, 6:19;!7:5, 7:23; Col 3:5.” (Albert Barnes) “We are to strive against covetousness, intemperance, pride, detraction, and rash judgment of others; and not to be confident in the good success of worldly business; but, mindful ever of the uncertainty of this life, to commit ourselves and all our affairs to God's providence.”—Anno Domini 60
“Ye lust and do not have’; to the satisfying of your lusts; for that is an endless piece of work. Lust still cries ‘Give, give’; and is ever sick of a spiritual dropsy; the barren womb, the horse leech’s daughter (Prov. 30:15), the grave, is nothing to this gulf, to this curse of unsatisfiableness.” (Trapp)—“‘Ye kill’ in your heart, for ‘he that hateth his brother is a murderer. ‘Ye fight and war - That is, furiously strive and contend. Ye ask not— And no marvel; for a man full of evil desire, of envy or hatred, cannot pray.” (Wesley) These scoundrels “are not ashamed to make God the minister and helper of their lusts and pleasures, in asking things which are either in themselves unlawful or being lawful, ask for them out of wicked motives and uses.” (Geneva Study Bible)
“‘You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss.’ How shall we think God will hear us when we hardly hear ourselves? Married couples must agree, that their prayers be not hindered, 1 Peter 3:7. There is no sowing in a storm; no taking medicine in a hot fit. (Trapp) We must disciple ourselves during the calm. “You ask and do not receive,’; you do not ask of God with a right spirit, or for the right end. You seek to gratify yourselves; whereas you should seek to glorify God.” (Edwards)— because you ask amiss, "that ye may consume it upon your lusts; you pray for the things of this life only, that you may have wherewith to please the flesh, and gratify your carnal appetites, and so an evil end spoils good means; and while you would have God serve your lusts you lose your prayers.” (Poole)
“‘Adulterers and adulteresses,’ Unfaithful people! As an adulterous wife is unfaithful to her husband, so your spiritual adultery is unfaithful to your God!” (The Bible Study NT) “The same sin is charged by the apostles Peter and Jude upon the false teachers and their followers, 2 Peter 2:10; 2 Peter 2:14; 2 Peter 2:18; Judges 1:4; Judges 1:7-8. (Justin Edwards)— “‘Don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?’—You gain the friendship of worldly people by sharing in their sins, but in doing this, you make yourself God's enemy!” (The Bible Study NT)
“‘Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.’ He who gives himself to the world divorces himself from God, and breaks the band of that holy and spiritual marriage.” (Geneva Study Bible)“Draper notes, ‘Many of us know what Simon Peter went through when he cursed and said, ‘I don"t know Christ’. Too few of us know what he went through when he went out and wept bitterly and repented.” (Dunagan Commentary)— Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”— Other manuscripts read, ‘that God hath made to dwell in us’ (namely, at Pentecost). If so translated, ‘Does the Spirit that God hath placed in us lust to (towards) envy’? Certainly not; ye are therefore walking in the flesh, not in the Spirit, while ye thus lust towards, that is, with envy against one another.” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown) "But"—praise God— "He gives more grace. Therefore He says: 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble'”— according to the same Scriptures.
James 4: Christian Submission
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
“‘Submit yourselves’ calls for a voluntary act on the part of man, else his pride will come up against the resistance of God. ‘Resist’ requires more than a mere aversion to the devil; it calls for active opposition. If a disciple will put up that kind of fight he is assured of victory over the enemy.” (Zerr's N.T. Commentary)
“‘Submit - to God’ - Continue to bow to all His decisions, and to all His dispensations.” (Adam Clarke) Study and obey all His doctrines.
“‘Resist the devil’ - by refusing to do wrong, for the accomplishment of any object. The devil is a living and busy agent, exciting and increasing human wickedness, tempting men to envy, violence, and fraud. But he may be, and he ought to be effectually resisted, by refusing to comply with his temptations.” (Justin Edwards)
“He who, in the terrible name of Jesus, opposes even the devil himself, is sure to have a speedy and glorious conquest. He flees from that name, and from his conquering blood.” (Adam Clarke)
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
“‘Draw near to God’— This seems to be an allusion to the manner in which the Jews in general, or rather the priests, drew nigh to God, by going to the temple, while the Shechinah, the glorious emblem of the divine presence, was there.” (Thomas Coke) But James is not calling for the type, but rather the antitype— the substance.
“The exact equivalent of this expression, ‘Let us draw near,’ as used in Hebrews 10:22ff, has a marked application to conversion, faith, repentance and baptism, all three being specifically referred to....— ‘and He will draw near to you.’— ‘and purify your hearts, you double-minded.’ [be]... obedient to the gospel, being born again.” (Coffman Commentary)
“‘Cleanse your hands,’ your conduct.— ‘you sinners’ -Ye double-minded; ye who hesitate, undecided, between God and the world.” (Abbott's New Testament) “There may possibly be an allusion here to Isaiah 1:15-16; ‘Your hands are full of blood; wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil.’” (Albert Barnes)—
‘And purify your hearts’— From all spiritual adultery.” (John Wesley) “The heart is the seat of motives and intentions, that by which we devise anything;...That is, do not rest satisfied with a mere external reformation; with putting away your outward transgressions. There must be a deeper work than that; a work which shall reach to the heart, and which shall purify the affections.“ (Albert Barnes)
“Lament and mourn and weep!’ For wretchedness, sorrow, and tears are the three steps of the homeward way to peace and God. And in proof of real conversion there must be the outward lamentation, as well as the inward contrition. Grieve, therefore, with a ‘godly sorrow not to be repented of’ (2 Corinthians 7:10)—the remorseful anguish of a Peter, and not a Judas. Let the foolish laughter at sin, which was ‘as the crackling of thorns’ before the avenging fire (Eccl. 7:6), be turned to mourning; banish the joyous smile for the face cast down to heaviness. ‘Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness’ and so await the blessedness of those that mourn (Matt. v, 4), even the promised comfort of God.” (C. J. Ellicott)
“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord,’ instead of fighting and warring for worldly emoluments, honor, and pleasure, commit yourselves quietly to God.” (Justin Edwards) “The tree, to grow upwards, must strike its roots downward; so man, to be exalted, must have his mind deep-rooted in humility.” (Jamieson Fassett- Brown)
And He shall lift you up to true honor in His own time and way. “The Lion of Judah rends not the prostrate prey. But as William the Conqueror ever held submission satisfactory for the greatest offences, and often received rebels into grace, so doth Christ much more. The sun in the morning gathereth clouds, but then it soon scattereth them again; so doth the Sun of righteousness cast men down, that he may raise them up again.” (John Trapp)
James 4: One Lawgiver and Judge
11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
Speaking evil of a brother or sister does not make you a Commandment keeper yourself; it only makes you an evil judge. “We have the law of God, which is a rule to all; let us not presume to set up our own notions and opinions as a rule to those about us, and let us be careful that we be not condemned of the Lord.” (Matthew Henry)
You can not always judge rightly, but you can certainly use spiritual discernment to identify outward violations of the moral code of the Ten Commandments in the light of Jesus’ sermon on the mount in Matthew, chapter 5. By His teachings there, Jesus raises the standard for the people of God.
And you can confront transgressors. The early church rightly exercised this role, excommunicating willful transgressors when needed. So what is condemned here is not judging alone but passing judgement and speaking evil of a person without the intent to destroy them rather than to save them. It is backbiting. “Backbyte not one another brethren (4:11).” (Tyndale Bible) Confront them with their sins. If they will not hear you, take along a brother. If they still will not listen excommunication would serve to destroy the flesh, that they might be saved in the end. See Matthew 18:15-17 and 1 Corinthians 5:5.
And certainly do not pass final judgment and execute it before you give them the benefit of a fair trial.
We read things on social media about politicians and others that are unsupported by investigative journalism, much less a legal trial. But because these rumors or lies support our preconceived beliefs, we propagate them as truth. Don’t blame the Russians in telling lies to influence our elections, but consider rather the sins of the masses who are willing to feed on their malarkey. Political campaigns of both camps use the same means. They don’t even care if something is true or not. They only care about their personal agenda. And they try to justify the use of these evils to further a righteous cause.
This is wrong because it assumes that we are in a position to render ultimate verdicts over people, a prerogative that is God’s alone. It was the Lord Jesus who wrote the Commandments of God on tablets of stone, to show their permanency, with His own finger. It is He who will judge us in the last days by His Words, even His doctrine. And He knows the thoughts and intents of the human heart. He will consider all facts in every case which comes before Him. So take your places as subjects of the Lawgiver and Judge who is able to save and destroy.
James 4: Seeking God’s Will
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit” 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
“‘Come now,’ the same in meaning as the Hebrew הבה habah, come, Genesis 11:3, 4, 7. Come, and hear what I have to say, ye that say, etc.” (Adam Clarke)— “‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’ as if they were petty gods within themselves, and needed not to call God into counsel, or to take his leave along with them.” (John Trapp)— ‘whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.’... whether they would live or die; whether they would be prospered, or would be overwhelmed with adversity.“ (Albert Barnes) “Sell not the hide before ye have taken the beast.” (John Trapp)
James “does not condemn merchants travelling into other countries, nor trading there, nor designing gain by their trade, nor forecasting their business; but their promising themselves the continuance of their life, the accomplishing their designs, and the success of their labours, without respect to God’s providence and direction.” (Matthew Poole)
“You may make your plans, but God directs your actions." (Proverbs 16:9) “Their sin was not in planning for the future, but in failing to consider God in their plans.” (Charles Box) “To what extent is your life directed by the knowledge that Christ is coming back?
Much of our thinking and behavior is shaped by what we can see of present circumstances or past events. Yet Scripture speaks forcefully of Christ’s return as a fact that should be directing how we live now. Christians are to be motivated by the certainty of this future event." (George Stulac)
“‘For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.’ We can fix the hour and minute of the sun's rising and setting tomorrow, but we cannot fix the certain time of a vapour being scattered.” (Matthew Henry) “That's the way life is.“ (Burton Coffman)
Thus: “The purposes which are founded only on the present life, are altogether evanescent.” (John Calvin) “Thy breath is in thy nostrils, ever ready to puff out; at the next puff of breath thou mayest blow away thy life.” (John Trapp) How vain are those counsels that are built upon no more sure a foundation than human will.
“Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’” "A study of the use of this conditional clause in the NT makes it clear that we are not to repeat it mechanically in connection with every statement of future plans.“ (Dr. Thomas B. Constable) God’s will is revealed to us in His Torah or Teachings. If we hook into that fountain, we might—through prayer— decide to do business in another city where the harvest is ripe. Or if our current business is evil, we may decide to give it up altogether. Sharing the Gospel ought to be the main concern of everyone. If not, our plans will fail— if not in this life, then in securing a place for us and ours in the one to come.
16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil 17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
You boast in your success; I boast in Jesus— my God. The true good is sharing Him. “Christians should view life differently from non-Christians. They should not live as if their lives on earth are going to last for ever, but should consider the eternal purposes of God and arrange their affairs accordingly. Their chief consideration should be to do God's will, not to look for personal gain and advancement (13-16). If they know this is the way they should live, but do not put their knowledge into practice, they are guilty of [grosser] sin (17) [than their fellows].“ (Bridgeway Bible Commentary)
“The sowing time occurs but once in the season.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)