James 4:2

The Pulpit Commentary - James 4:2-3

"Ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it on your pleasures." Prayer is not to be selfish, or for the satisfaction of corrupt appetites; and where the spirit of prayer is absent there is no promise to prayer. "Incredible as it might seem that men plundering and murdering, as the previous verses represent them, should have 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;... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - James 4:2

Ye lust, and have not - That is, you wish to have something which you do not now possess, and to which you have no just claim, and this prompts to the effort to obtain it by force. You desire extension of territory, fame, booty, the means of luxurious indulgence, or of magnificence and grandeur, and this leads to contest and bloodshed. These are the causes of wars on the large scale among nations and of the contentions and strifes of individuals. The general reason is, that others have that... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - James 4:2-3

James 4:2-3. Ye lust Επιθυμειτε , ye covet, or eagerly desire; and have not What you desire; you are, some way or other, hindered from attaining that of which you are so greedy; ye kill In your heart; for he that hateth his brother is a murderer. Or he speaks of the actual murders which the carnal Jews, called zealots, committed of the heathen, and even those of their own nation who opposed them. Accordingly, he says, ye kill, Και ζηλουτε , and are zealous, thereby showing,... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - James 4:1-12

Worldliness and its results (4:1-12)Continuing his teaching on the evil results of worldly attitudes, James explains why fights and quarrels occur. Selfish ambition fights against the more spiritual motives. Some Christians are constantly looking for more power, increased possessions and higher status. Because they want the wrong things, they do not pray. If they pray, they find their prayers refused, and so try to do things their own way (4:1-3). This is worldliness, and it is opposed to the... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - James 4:2

desire to have = covet earnestly. Greek. zeloo. See Acts 7:9 . cannot = are not ( App-105 ) able to. obtain . See Romans 11:7 . fight . Greek. machomai. See Acts 7:26 . war . Greek. polemeo. Only here and Revelation 2:16 ; Revelation 12:7 ; Revelation 13:4 ; Revelation 17:14 ; Revelation 19:11 . Note the different words for war in these two verses. because, &c . = on account of ( App-104 .James 4:2; James 4:2 ) your not asking. ask . App-134 . not . App-105 . read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - James 4:2

Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not.James' reference, "ye kill," is not to be taken as an indictment of the Christian communities addressed by him as murderers. "The word kill is to be taken in the sense of hatred proceeding from envy, as in 1 John 3:15: whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.'"[6] Of course, all of the New Testament writers were aware of the Master's teaching in Matthew 5:21,22, where the... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - James 4:2

James 4:2. Ye kill, and desire to have,— We must take the word φονευετε, ye kill, in a softer sense than the common meaning of the word. As wars and fightings, in the first verse, are interpreted quarrels and contentions; so here, ye kill, and desire to have, may be interpreted, "Ye are ready to murder and use violence, like the Jewish zealots, that you may satisfy your covetous desires." The thought or inclination to murder, may possibly here be called murder; in the same sense as St. John... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - James 4:2

2. Ye lust—A different Greek word from that in James 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].... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - James 4:1-10

A. Interpersonal and Inner Personal Tensions 4:1-10"James 4 continues the same topic of strife, and addresses now not only the teachers of James 3:14 but also the rest of the brotherhood who are in similar sin: strife springs from within (James 4:1-3) and is fostered by worldliness; love of the world and love of God cannot coexist (James 4:4-6); Christians must resist the devil and draw near to God (James 4:7-10)." [Note: Adamson, p. 165.] read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - James 4:2

The ultimate end of lust, desire that a person may or may not satisfy, is murder. We can see this through human history all the way from Cain down to the present (cf. the case of Naboth; 1 Kings 21). James was probably not accusing his readers of murder, though at least one scholar believed he was. [Note: Martin, p. 146.] He was probably reminding them of the serious ultimate consequences of living merely to satisfy personal desires."In the context of forceful words such as polemoi (’wars’) and... read more

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