{"id":9790,"date":"2026-05-13T07:33:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9790"},"modified":"2026-05-13T07:33:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:33:44","slug":"james-41-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9790","title":{"rendered":"James 4:1-5"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 <\/span>Where do wars and fights\u00a0come\u00a0from among you? Do\u00a0they\u00a0not\u00a0come\u00a0from your\u00a0desires for pleasure\u00a0that war in your members?<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

2\u00a0<\/sup>You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

3\u00a0<\/sup>You ask and do not receive,\u00a0because you ask amiss, that you may spend\u00a0it on your pleasures.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

4\u00a0<\/sup>Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

5\u00a0<\/sup>Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain,\u00a0\u201cThe Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously\u201d?<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

wars (vs.1, 2) = disputes, strife, quarrels (contrasted with the peace of James 3:18<\/span><\/a>).<\/h3>\n

members (v.1) = a part belonging to the whole; any function of human personality or the human body<\/h3>\n

The word “lusts” [v.1 \u2014 desires for pleasure] is translated from the Greek word hedone<\/em>, from which we get the word hedonism. This is the same word Paul used in Titus 3:3<\/span><\/a> where it is translated as “pleasures” (i.e., sinful<\/em> pleasures). [The word “lust” in v.2 is] a different word than the one translated “lusts” in verse 1. The word here is epithumeo<\/em>, and means to set one’s heart upon<\/em> or to long for<\/em>. Here the word is used in a negative sense for when someone becomes solely focused on getting something that he should not have \u2014 a single-minded pursuit of sin that is blind to the consequences. \u2014 Grace, page 2200.<\/span><\/h3>\n

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James is not using the term “kill” [murder] in a literal sense, but figuratively. James aligns his teaching so closely with the Sermon the Mount that, in all likelihood, he is simply reinforcing the instructions that were given by the Lord. The law says, “Thou shalt not kill,” but the Lord went straight to the root of the matter that if a man was angry<\/em> with his brother without a cause he was in danger of the judgment to come. The Apostle John adds: “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15). Both anger and hatred are sins of the heart. It is sad but true that believers are susceptible to falling back into the very sins that so easily beset them. With this in mind, James points out to his countrymen that they were consumed with lust \u2014 that is, lust for position, status, and possessions. When some discovered that these things were beyond their reach, they became envious of those who possessed these things \u2014 so much so that murderous<\/em> anger filled their hearts, jeopardizing the very testimony of these assemblies. \u2014 Sadler, pages 104-105.<\/span><\/h3>\n

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Quarrels are not caused by outward circumstances, but by inward passions. If men were sinless there would be no contentions or wars. War characterizes the carnal nature; peace, the new nature. Envy involves murder (v.2). God’s promises are addressed to those who pray, not to those who fight. If men prayed, there would be no fighting. If it be replied that they do pray, and that nothing results, the answer is that their prayer is animated by the passion for self-pleasing (v.3). \u2014 Williams, page 995.<\/span><\/h3>\n

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The hostilities among them … were hindering their prayer life in two senses: some were so consumed with the heat of battle that they had stopped praying. James says, “ye have not, because ye ask not.” Their preoccupation to win the argument left little time to communicate with God. Others who were praying did so with the wrong motives. Thus the apostle adds, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss.” The term “amiss” here has the idea of depraved<\/em> or evil<\/em>. The prayers of these particular brethren were laced with ill-intent. … The prayer life of these saints was governed by the gospel of the kingdom under which they served. Whatever these saints prayed for, God had promised to provide for them, as long as they asked in faith (Matthew 21:22<\/span><\/a>). But, what “is not of faith is sin.” Thus the impure motives of these saints explain why God was not responding to their prayers\u2014 Sadler, page 105.<\/span><\/h3>\n

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adulterers and adulteresses (v.4) \u2014 Spiritual adultery was mentioned often in the Old Testament (Isaiah 57:3-9; Jeremiah 3:20; Ezekiel 16:32, 35, 38; and Hosea 2). It is no more right for a Christian to love both God and the world, than for a man to have two wives. Unfaithfulness would repulse the offended party in either case. \u2014 KJV Commentary, page 1722.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Do you think …? (v.5) \u2014 In the original Greek, this expects a negative reply.<\/h3>\n

enmity (v.4) = hostility. “Do not love the world or the things in the world.\u00a0If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.\u00a0<\/span>For all that\u00a0is in the world\u2014the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life\u2014is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16).<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

James makes it clear that whoever is a friend of this world’s system is an enemy of God because the world is hostile<\/em> to the things of God. Friendship implies common interests, mutual respect, and similar goals. for the believer, then, to be a friend of the world, he must, for all intents and purposes, lower<\/em> his standards to be accepted. It has been correctly noted that “worldliness is what any particular culture does to make sin look normal and righteousness look strange.” \u2014 Sadler, pages 106-107.<\/span><\/h3>\n

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Scripture (v.5) \u2014 James apparently did not refer to a specific verse of Scripture, but to the overall tenor of Scripture, which reveals that man’s nature is bent toward evil and wrong desires instead of toward God (Genesis 6:5<\/span><\/a>; 8:21<\/span><\/a>; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 7:14-15<\/span><\/a>; Galatians 5:17<\/span><\/a>). \u2014 Grace, page 2200.<\/span><\/h3>\n

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The Holy Spirit that indwelt these believers yearned, jealously, for their undivided attention (v.5) \u2014 Sadler, page 107.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Where do wars and fights\u00a0come\u00a0from among you? Do\u00a0they\u00a0not\u00a0come\u00a0from your\u00a0desires for pleasure\u00a0that war in your members? 2\u00a0You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9791,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9790\/revisions\/9791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}