The People's Bible by Joseph Parker - James 4:1-17
"What Is Your Life?" Jam 4:14 The question may be asked in many tones. It may be asked rebukingly, pensively, comfortingly; we may throw into the inquiry a tone of music and most solemn wonder. There is no doubt as to how the question was asked by the Apostle. He was taking a rather humbling view of life. He was addressing certain persons who were boastfully saying, "To-day, or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain," descendants of the... read more
James Gray's Concise Bible Commentary - James 4:1-17
WORLDLY MINDEDNESS Like other divisions of this epistle this is so connected with the last, and grows out of it so naturally, that it is difficult to say where the division occurs. The writer had been speaking of envying and strife in expression through the tongue, and now puts in his plow deeper to show their source in the antecedent condition of the heart. “Lust” is not to be taken in the limited sense of sensuality, but in the broader sense of worldly pleasure or gratification of any kind.... read more