Verse 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 machai (’battles’), it seems better to take phoneuete (’you kill’) as hyperbole for hatred. This also resolves the problem of seeming anticlimactic word order. To say ’You hate and covet’ is a much more natural order than to say ’You murder and covet.’ Furthermore, Matthew 5:21-22 and 1 John 3:15 show that hatred is equal to murder." [Note: Burdick, p. 193. Cf. Motyer, pp. 140,164-65.]
Likewise fights and arguments follow when we do not obtain our desires.
"There are indeed few evils in human life that cannot be traced to covetousness and envy in the sense in which we find these words used in this verse. Covetousness does not always lead to possession, envy does not always attain to the position of its rivals-and the inevitable result is conflict and strife." [Note: Tasker, p. 87.]
"This is the condition to which lust consigns it votaries; it disappoints them, and makes them mutual tormentors." [Note: Edwin T. Winkler, "Commentary on the Epistle of James," in An American Commentary on the New Testament, p. 54.]
"Unsatisfied desire leads to murder . . .; disappointed ambition leads to quarrelling and fighting." [Note: Mayor, p. 136.]
The only way to obtain satisfaction is to ask God to give it. We do not have what God wants us to have because we do not ask Him for these things. [Note: Cf. Fanning, pp. 432-33.] This is one of the most important verses in the Bible concerning prayer. There are some things we can have from God that we will not have unless we ask Him for them.
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