James 4:1

The sermonic nature of this epistle is quite pronounced in this chapter, as in the third. There is first a section directed against worldliness in the church (James 4:1-12), with a somewhat parenthetical appeal to alien sinners (James 4:7-10) to obey the gospel, the appropriateness of this inclusion deriving from the fact that every Christian congregation contains within the periphery of its influence a number, sometimes quite large, of the unconverted. The admonition against worldliness continues with a directive against making plans without reference to the will of God (James 4:13-17).

Whence come wars and whence come fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members? (James 4:1)

It is rather startling that James would refer to the disputes and wranglings of church members in such terms as "wars and fightings"; but is this not actually the nature of them? It is a gross error to construe these words literally in the sense of wars, seditions and revolutions, such literalism being the distinctive "fundamentalism" peculiar to certain schools of New Testament criticism. "James cannot be thinking of wars and fightings between nations."[1] 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."[2] Other uses of this word in the New Testament substantiate this meaning, as in 2 Corinthians 7:5; 2 Timothy 2:23, and Titus 3:9. Paul spoke of "fightings within and fears without." Thus it is safe to view James' words here as directed toward the solution of "a spiritual problem within the circle of believers."[3] 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. The idea that James is here speaking only of religious teachers and their disputes, and another notion to the effect that James, writing to Jews of the Diaspora, directed these teachings against the wars of Jews with each other - both ideas, according to Lenski, "are untenable."[4] The words of this section are applicable today, being sorely needed in countless situations all over the world.

Pleasures that war in your members ... As in practically every line of this letter, the teachings of Jesus are in focus. Our Lord taught that the "riches and pleasures of this life choke out the word of God" (Luke 8:14); and James dealt with both, pleasures here, and riches at the beginning of the next chapter. The inherent selfishness of human nature in the pathetic struggle to satisfy the desire for pleasure must inevitably be thrust into conflict both inwardly within the personality itself and outwardly in all human relationships. As so often in God's word, it is self-explanatory. The kind of wars and fightings just mentioned is precisely that of pleasures warring against the soul's true interests "in your members," meaning not "between members of the church" exclusively (though this is included), but within men themselves, individually.

The pursuit of pleasure must be regarded by every Christian as a fruitless and dangerous course, loaded with all kinds of disastrous consequences. As Barclay noted:

(1) It sets men at each other's throats; the basic desires for money, power, prestige, and worldly possessions, for the gratification of bodily lusts (lead men to) trample each other down in the rush to grasp them.

(2) It drives men to wickedness, envy, hatred, even murder.

(3) In the end, it shuts the door of prayer,[5]

In addition, it may be pointed out regarding the pursuit of pleasure that:

(4) It chokes out the word of God (Luke 8:14).

(5) It cannot lead to satisfaction, requiring continually that both the amount and the intensity be increased, until finally the pleasure-mad soul is utterly miserable.

(6) It produces soul-hunger, disquietude and unhappiness, actually the death of the soul (1 Timothy 5:6).

[1] Ronald A. Ward, New Bible Commentary, Revised (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Company, 1970); p. 1231.

[2] J. W. Roberts, The Letter of James (Austin, Texas: Sweet Publishing Company, 1977), p. 123.

[3] A. F. Harper, Beacon Bible Commentary, Vol. X (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1967), p. 229.

[4] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of ... the Epistle of James (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1938), p. 623.

[5] William Barclay, The Letters of James and Peter, Revised (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976), p. 100.