James 4:1-8

Notes

1. James 4:1.—The apostle passes by a sharp and painful transition from the ideal as brought to view in the close of the preceding chapter, where he speaks of the fruits of righteousness being sown in peace of them that make peace, to a state of things which is too often a reality in the church, when there is contention and brawling and strife. He then points out the source from which these things spring. They are the opposite of that wisdom which comes from above, of which he spoke in the preceding chapter, and come from the motions of sin in our members. Lange says: "Every sensual and selfish lust which is not killed in the heart of the Christian, sooner or later must work disastrously, to the detriment of fraternal communion. Disappointed hopes should not fill us with bitterness and hatred against one another, but rather prompt us to humility and believing, confiding prayer."

2. Verse 2.—"Ye kill, and desire to have." This is to be taken, according to the context, not in a literal but spiritual sense, as in verse 4. It refers to a condition of the mind. In the former dispensation, in the cases of David and Ahab, the envy and desire to obtain, led to actual murder. The same feelings are the springs of the same crimes now. John says, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer." The marginal reading, therefore, though not in this case a literal translation of the word used, doubtless conveys the true idea by referring to that condition of mind which, if suffered to develop to its full extent, would lead to murder.

3. "Ye ask not." The fact that people will attempt to bring before God in prayer the unhallowed and worldly ends which they seek, is a sad commentary on the condition of self-deception into which one may fall. To ask for improper things in an improper spirit, is, in one sense, not to ask at all; for Heaven does not regard such prayers. From another point of view, it is called asking "amiss." Verse 3. Prayer offered for the right objects, and put up in the right spirit, will alone secure the blessing.

4. Verse 5.—There is no passage to be found in the Scriptures which contains the precise language here given. It is not a direct quotation. This leads to the necessary conclusion that what the Scriptures teach in various passages, and by various forms of phraseology, is spoken of as what the Scriptures say.

5. Verse 8.—The washing or cleansing of the hands was a token of innocence and purity. As sinners we must cleanse our hands from wicked works; and as double-minded, we must put away that fickleness and indecision of mind which counteracts all our efforts for good, and have "faith, nothing wavering." For only those who are clean of hands and sincere and pure of heart can effectually draw near to God.