James 4 KJV
Submit to God
James Chapter 4: Submit to God
This chapter explores themes of Humility, Temptation, Spiritual Warfare. James 4:5's citation of an unidentified scripture about the spirit lusting to envy has no precise Old Testament parallel, leading scholars to see it as either a loose paraphrase of passages like Genesis 6:5 or an allusion to now-lost extracanonical traditions circulating among early Jewish Christians.
1rom whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
โ โ arrow keys to navigate chapters ยท spacebar to play/pause audio
Did You Know?
James 4:5's citation of an unidentified scripture about the spirit lusting to envy has no precise Old Testament parallel, leading scholars to see it as either a loose paraphrase of passages like Genesis 6:5 or an allusion to now-lost extracanonical traditions circulating among early Jewish Christians.
The mercantile warning in verses 13-15 employs the rare phrase 'Go to now,' an archaic rendering that echoes the prophetic style of Amos and Isaiah, framing commercial travel plans as a form of arrogant autonomy that ignores God's sovereignty over time and geography.
Verse 4's metaphor of spiritual adultery draws directly on Hosea's covenantal imagery but applies it to intra-church conflicts, equating friendship with the world to a breach of loyalty that echoes the deuteronomic curses for covenant infidelity.
The paired imperatives 'submit to God' and 'resist the devil' in verse 7 create a chiastic reversal of the fall narrative in Genesis 3, where yielding to temptation is countered by active resistance that restores proximity to the divine presence.
Verse 11's prohibition against speaking evil of a brother functions as an expansion of Leviticus 19:16, extending the Torah's slander laws into the realm of eschatological judgment by positioning the hearer as a self-appointed judge over God's law itself.
Commentary & Study Notes Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871) ยท Public Domain whence โ The cause of quarrels is often sought in external circumstances, whereas internal lusts are the true origin. wars, &c. โ contrasted with the "peace" of heavenly wisdomโฆ
Classic verse-by-verse commentary on James 4 from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871). Covers: Against fightings and their source; Worldly lusts; Uncharitable judgments, and presumptuous reckoning on the future.
- 1
- whence โ The cause of quarrels is often sought in external circumstances, whereas internal lusts are the true origin. wars, &c. โ contrasted with the "peace" of heavenly wisdom. "Fightings" are the active carrying on of "wars." The best authorities have a second "whence" before "fightings." Tumults marked the era before the destruction of Jerusalem when James wrote. He indirectly alludes to these. The members are the first seat of war; thence it passes to conflict between man and man, nation and nation. come they not, &c. โ an appeal to their consciences. lusts โ literally, "pleasures," that is, the lusts which prompt you to "desire" (see on Jas 4:2) pleasures; whence you seek self at the cost of your neighbor, and hence flow "fightings." that war โ "campaign, as an army of soldiers encamped within" [ALFORD] the soul; tumultuously war against the interests of your fellow men, while lusting to advance self. But while warring thus against others they (without his knowledge) war against the soul of the man himself, and against the Spirit; therefore they must be "mortified" by the Christian.
- 2
- Ye lust โ A different Greek word from that in Jas 4:1. "Ye desire"; literally, "ye set your mind (or heart) on" an object. have not โ The lust of desire does not ensure the actual possession. Hence "ye kill" (not as Margin, without any old authority, "envy") to ensure possession. Not probably in the case of professing Christians of that day in a literal sense, but "kill and envy" (as the Greek for "desire to have" should be translated), that is, harass and oppress through envy [DRUSIUS]. Compare Zec 11:5, "slay"; through envy, hate, and desire to get out of your way, and so are "murderers" in God's eyes [ESTIUS]. If literal murder [ALFORD] were meant, I do not think it would occur so early in the series; nor had Christians then as yet reached so open criminality. In the Spirit's application of the passage to all ages, literal killing is included, flowing from the desire to possess so David and Ahab. There is a climax: "Ye desire," the individual lust for an object; "ye kill and envy," the feeling and action of individuals against individuals; "ye fight and war," the action of many against many. ye have not, because ye ask not โ God promises to those who pray, not to those who fight. The petition of the lustful, murderous, and contentious is not recognized by God as prayer. If ye prayed, there would be no "wars and fightings." Thus this last clause is an answer to the question, Jas 4:1, "Whence come wars and fightings?"
Read all 18 notes on James 4 โ