James 4:3-4 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - James 4:1-10

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,... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 4:1-3

4:1-3 Whence come feuds and whence come fights among you? Is this not their source--do they not arise because of these desires for pleasures which carry on their constant warring campaign within your members? You desire but you do not possess; you murder; you covet but you cannot obtain. You fight and war but you do not possess, because you do not ask. You ask but you do not receive, because you ask wrongly, for your only desire is to spend what you receive on your own pleasures. James is... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 4:1-3

This pleasure-dominated life has certain inevitable consequences. (i) It sets men at each other's throats. Desires, as James sees it, are inherently warring powers. He does not mean that they war within a man--although that is also true--but that they set men warring against each other. The basic desires are for the same things--for money, for power, for prestige, for worldly possessions, for the gratification of bodily lusts. When all men are striving to possess the same things, life... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 4:4-7

4:4-7 Renegades to your vows, do you not know that love for this world is enmity to God? Whoever makes it his aim to be the friend of this world thereby becomes the enemy of God. Do you think that the saying of Scripture is only an idle saying: "God jealously yearns for the spirit which he has made to dwell within us"? But God gives the more grace. That is why Scripture says, "God sets himself against the haughty, but gives grace to the humble." So, then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 4:4-7

In this passage James says that love of the world is enmity with God and that he who is the friend of the world thereby becomes the enemy of God. It is important to understand what he means. (i) This is not spoken out of contempt for the world. It is not spoken from the point of view which regards earth as a desert drear and which denigrates everything in the natural world. There is a story of a Puritan who was out for a walk in the country with a friend. The friend noticed a very lovely... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 4:4-7

James 4:5 is exceedingly difficult. To begin with, it is cited as a quotation from Scripture, but there is no part of Scripture of which it is, in fact, anything like a recognizable quotation. We may either assume that James is quoting from some book now lost which he regarded as Scripture; or, that he is summing up in one sentence what is the eternal sense of the Old Testament and not meaning to quote any particular passage. Further, the translation is difficult: There are two alternative... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 4:4-7

James goes on to meet an almost inevitable reaction to this picture of God as the jealous lover. If God is like that, how can any man give to him the devotion he demands? James' answer is that, if God makes a great demand, he gives great grace to fulfil it; and the greater the demand, the greater the grace God gives. But grace has a constant characteristic--a man cannot receive it until he has realized his need of it, and has come to God humbly pleading for help. Therefore, it must always... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - James 4:3

Ye ask, and receive not ,.... Some there were that did ask of God the blessings of his goodness and providence, and yet these were not bestowed on them; the reason was, because ye ask amiss ; not in the faith of a divine promise; nor with thankfulness for past mercies; nor with submission to the will of God; nor with a right end, to do good to others, and to make use of what might be bestowed, for the honour of God, and the interest of Christ: but that ye may consume it upon your... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - James 4:4

Ye adulterers and adulteresses ,.... Not who were literally such, but in a figurative and metaphorical sense: as he is an adulterer that removes his affections from his own wife, and sets them upon another woman; and she is an adulteress that loves not her husband, but places her love upon another man; so such men and women are adulterers and adulteresses, who, instead of loving God, whom they ought to love with all their hearts and souls, set their affections upon the world, and the things... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - James 4:3

Ye ask, and receive not - Some think that this refers to their prayers for the conversion of the heathen; and on the pretense that they were not converted thus; they thought it lawful to extirpate them and possess their goods. Ye ask amiss - Κακως αιτεισθε· Ye ask evilly, wickedly. Ye have not the proper dispositions of prayer, and ye have an improper object. Ye ask for worldly prosperity, that ye may employ it in riotous living. This is properly the meaning of the original, ἱνα εν... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - James 4:1-10

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 4:1-3

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 4:1-3

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 4:4-7

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 4:4-7

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 4:4-7

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 4:4-7

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - James 4:3

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - James 4:4

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - James 4:3

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