Bible Commentaries
James 4

Verse 1

THE WORLDLINESS TEST OF FAITH

Theme of James 4:1-17 is worldliness rebuked in the lives and fellowship of children of God.

1) Whence originate (Gr. polemoi) wars - chronic states of quarreling - and whence fightings which culminate in battles and clashes among you? Rhetorically, James asks, "do these not come from covetous, sensual, sinful pleasures that battle in the members of your body?" Romans 7:23; Galatians 5:17; 1 Peter 2:11.

2) Covetousness is the king of all sins in human nature, condemned (Exodus 20:17; Romans 7:7).

Verse 2

1) Brethren were charged with covetous flesh lusts, killing and murdering, chronic quarreling and clashes among themselves without obtaining the object of their covetous, lustful desires.

2) He concluded that their in-fighting among themselves, hating and despising brethren, was of the nature of murder, yet they had not the things they desired because they had not requested or earnestly petitioned God in their own behalf according to James 1:5; Luke 11:9.

3) Covetous lusts for power and prestige had often caused Israel to murder, while campaigning as religious zealots, as David and Ahab did, without sincere recourse to prayer for Divine intervention and guidance.

SELFISHNESS BLIGHTS

"Selfishness seeks more than its own. It cheats, it robs, it murders, to get what belongs to others. How desolate and desolating is a selfish life! It blights and ruins wherever it rules."

- Selected

CHRISTIAN’S FOE

There is a foe whose hidden power

The Christian well may fear,

More subtle far than inbred sin,

And to the heart more dear;

It is the power of selfishness,

It is the willful 1:

And ere my Lord can live in me,

My very self must die.

- Selected

Verse 3

James charged that the brethren often asked (Gr. kakos) amiss, selfishly, covetously, on their own behalf or for their own purpose of personal gain and squandering on one’s self, in sensual pleasures. Such is evil, (1 Corinthians 12:31; Psalms 66:18; Matthew 6:31-32). Selfish, covetous prayers, are not in God’s will, go unanswered.

COVETOUSNESS

Is Covetousness a disease? Yes! It is a disease of the soul I With the passing of the years, passions burn low. Not so of the soul-shriveling, character-tarnishing, personality-dwarfing sin of covetousness. This sin tightens its grasp upon its wretched victims as they grow older.

That man may breathe, but never live,

Who much receives, but nothing gives;

Whom none can love, whom none can thank,

Creation’s blot, creation’s blank!

-W. B. K.

Verse 4

1) Playing friendship (Gr. philia) with the world, the present order of things, marks one as a spiritual adulteress (Gr. Moichalides) in which state he is at enmity with God. John 15:19; John 17:14; Galatians 1:4.

2) One who wills, purposes, or designs to be a friend of the world, James asserts, constitutes himself as an enemy of God, (1 John 2:15; 1 John 2:17). Note, it is possible to be a child of God and an enemy to Him at the same time.

WORLDLINESS

All the water in the world,

However hard it tried,

Could never sink a ship

Unless it got inside.

All the evil in the world,

The wickedness and sin,

Can never sink the soul’s craft

Unless it gets inside.

A GUIDE

Anything that dims my vision of Christ or takes away my taste for Bible study or cramps my prayer life or makes Christian work difficult is wrong for me, and I must, as a Christian, turn away from it. This simple rule may help you find a safe path for your feet along life’s road.

- J. Wilbur Chapman

REASON FOR ALARM

Thomas Guthrie used to say: If you find yourself loving any pleasure better than your prayers, any book better than the Bible, any house better than the house of God, any table better than the Lord’s table, any person better than Christ, any indulgence better than the hope of Heaven - take alarm.

- Selected

Verse 5

Rhetorically, James asserts that the Spirit of God indwelling the believer, is to keep him from finding joy and union with worldliness (Galatians 5:14; Romans 8:14; Galatians 5:25; Ephesians 4:30-32).

Verse 6

1) God gives additional or greater grace to His children who ask Him when involved in covetousness within them. (Romans 5:20; Romans 6:1; 2 Peter 3:18).

2) James then concludes that because of this, Scriptures assert that God offers resistance to the haughty, stuck-up "stuffed shirt" ones. Proverbs 3:34.

3) Greater grace, overcoming grace is abundantly found in the spirit of humility, not proud dogmatism, 1 Peter 5:5.

I saw beside a copy of Who’s Who a new volume -Who Was Who! How quickly we pass from hero to zero! "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass" (1 Peter 1:24).

- Dr. Vance Havner

SEE WHAT I DID!

There is a little fable that expresses a big truth.

A woodpecker was pecking away at the trunk of a dead tree. Suddenly lightning struck the tree and splintered it. The woodpecker flew away, unharmed. Looking back to where the dead tree had stood, the proud bird exclaimed, "Look what I did!"

That fable reminds us of the proud man who arrogated himself all the glory for his accomplishments "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" (Daniel 4:30).

-W. B. K.

Verse 7

1) Submission to God is the key to resistance to sin and wrong. 1 Corinthians 15:58.

2) Take a stand against and keep on standing against the devil and he will flee from you, of his own accord, 1 Peter 5:8; Ephesians 6:11; Luke 10:17.

3) Submission to God is humility, yet resistance to the devil, is a virtue of humility. When temptations come, humbly wave the banner of Christ in the devil’s face and he will flee. Deuteronomy 32:30-31; Joshua 23:9-10.

Verse 8

1) (Gr. engisate) "Get near God and stay there." This is an imperative or urgency with the pledge that He will get near to you, even while you often miss the mark in sins. Cleanse or wash your hands and if you are two-minded or double-soul, purify the heart of you, 2 Chronicles 15:2; Malachi 3:7; Hebrews 10:19-22.

2) "Clean hands" refer to physical cleansing required of Old Testament saints before entering to worship - so should Christians live clean lives, in the members of their body, Psalms 51:10; 1 John 1:8.

3) "Purifying hearts" refers to spiritual cleansing from spiritual adultery, of which, through worldliness they were guilty, whereas double minded means divided affections - such is caused by the conflict of the Spirit in the saved, split personality complexes, conflict of double standards, Romans 7:15; Romans 7:21.

Verse 9

James literally advises "Afflict yourselves mourn and cry out loud, you personality complexed persons - let your levity or laughter be turned into mourning and on the other hand, let your light, joy, and frivolity of life be turned to mourning and penitence," as the Publican, Luke 18:9-14, and as David, Psalms 51:1-12.

Verse 10

1) Humble or afflict yourselves before the face of God, praying in a closet, privately, about your problems or worldliness. He shall lift you, James certifies, Job 22:29; Proverbs 29:23; Luke 14:11; Luke 18:14.

2) Every humble, penitent soul who earnestly calls upon God, imploring His pardon and His help, shall be lifted from shame and remorse in this life, and the life which is to come.

LOWER YET

I used to think that God’s gifts were on shelves one above the other; and that the taller we grew in Christian character the easier we could reach them. I now find that God’s gifts are on shelves one beneath the other; and that it is not a question. of growing taller but of stooping lower; and that we have to go down, always down, to get His best gifts.

- F. B. Meyer, in Alliance Weekly

He that is down need fear no fall,

He that is low, no pride,

He that is humble, ever shall

Have God to be his guide.

Bunyan

Verse 11

1) A Christian must not speak harshly, derogatory against a brother, to berate or castigate, to run-down a brother. Ephesians 4:30-32. Such makes one to be a judge or to assume the position of a judge.

2) To set one-self up to criticize another, without having the facts, tends towards piosity and self-righteousness. Mark 7:5-9.

3) It is a mark of babbling morosity to criticize others more harshly than one’s self, while setting one’s self up as a witness, jury, and judge. To put away such a spirit is Godly, 1 Peter 2:1-3.

Verse 12

1) There is one law-setter and law-giver who is to judge, God. Only He has that power - the very inherent right to save and to destroy, Matthew 10:28; Deuteronomy 32:39.

2) Rhetorically James asks, "Who are you - aren’t you a pretty bird to judge another"? Romans 9:20; Romans 14:4.

3) Derogatory, castigating remarks against another, which one would not himself like to have, under similar circumstances, is the type of evil judging condemned. There is one true God who is Judge. Avoid the carping critic, fault-finder, castigator, a shyster judge and a sham in his castigation. Beware of the person who always has the answer before he hears the question or offers a solution before he knows what the problem is. Read Proverbs 18:13.

Verse 13

1) A literal translation is: "Be gone and stay gone, you who would make plans for trading and buying and merchandising in an uncertain city, tomorrow or the next day," and stay for a year trading. It is God who gives you the life to make purposes and plans, consider Him," Proverbs 27:1; Luke 12:18.

2) This is a sharp rebuke to the material minded Christian Jew in dispersion who had drifted into bartering, trading, and commercial matters, without regard to Christian principles in seeking the will of Christ for themselves and their friends first, Matthew 6:33; Ephesians 5:15-17.

3) This attitude is so much like the rich barn builder, Luke 12:14-21.

Verse 14

1) None knows what shall be tomorrow in this life or the world around him. James asks, what is the character of your life: He then answers that it is momentary, temporary, for a little time, at the most like a vapor, invisible, unstable, uncertain. This is a solemn warning against plans of life where the will of God is not central, Luke 16:1-31; Proverbs 27:1; Luke 14:30.

2) The brevity (shortness) of life is compared with:

1) The wind – Job 7:7; Psalms 78:39

2) A shadow – 1 Chronicles 29:15

3) A shuttle – Job 8:9

4) A Messenger – Job 14:2

5) A Handbreadth – Psalms 39:5

6) A Weavers Web – Isaiah 38:12

7) A Vapor – James 4:14.

Out, out brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

- Shakespeare

He who provides for this life, but takes no care for eternity, is wise for a moment, but a fool forever.

- Tillotson

Verse 15

1) One owes it to the Lord and his fellow man to say with regards to his plans, "if it is the Lord’s will, we shall" etc. Hebrews 10:36 -1 Peter 2:15.

2) This attitude of mind refers to the things of tomorrow, as of relationship to them should be, Acts 18:21; 1 Corinthians 4:19; 1 Corinthians 16:9; Philippians 2:19-24; Acts 17:28.

So on I go - not knowing I would not if I might; I’d rather walk in the dark with God Than go alone in the light; I’d rather walk by faith with Him Than go alone by sight.

- Selected

Verse 16

You keep on -gloating, vaunting, bragging with empty boasts, a bad pattern of life. All this (Gr. Kauchasthe) gloating and (alazonliais) vaunting is wicked, Romans 1:30; 1 John 2:16.

Verse 17

1) One knowing good or right and not progressively and actively sanctioning and doing it, sins. It is a sin of the mark-missing or off-center type, 1 Samuel 12:23.

2) Idle words are objects of accounting before God, Matthew 12:36-37. This describes the sin of omission James 1:23; Matthew 7:26; Matthew 23:23.

3) Quarreling, judging others harshly, and leaving God out of plans of daily affairs - all are traits of worldliness, which James yearns to see dispersed brethren overcome, by putting away covetousness, harsh judgment and seeking to be positively engaged in doing good in the work of the Lord, according to their Lord’s instructions, Matthew 6:33.