James 4: 1-12 Feikle

The ‘kill’ probably refers to killing with words rather than literal murder

‘You pray, but it is not effective, for your motives are wrong.

God’s goal is not to give human beings what their own impulses demand; his goal is that human beings will learn to love what he loves. It is not that God does not want people to have pleasure, but that he wants to train them to take pleasure in what he knows is truly good. As with Christ, crucifixion comes before resurrection for God’s people (Gal. 5:24).

God offers more grace rather than condemnation, to the believer who repents. To back this up James quotes , also quoted in : God does give grace to the humble (i.e. the repentant).

Come near to God says James. This sound like and . The picture is that of a person coming to offer sacrifice in the temple and coming near to God in the ceremony. Wash your hands. This is another OT picture (), illustrating the removal of sinful practices. Purify your hearts. Purification is mentioned in the OT (), but this is the making of the heart pure.

God will come near to you. He will lift you up. God will not leave a humble heart mourning. He will accept the repentance and respond with his love, raising the person up from their mourning into the warmth of his love.

God will come near to you. He will lift you up. God will not leave a humble heart mourning. He will accept the repentance and respond with his love, raising the person up from their mourning into the warmth of his love.

4:11–12 Concluding appeal

Your desires for pleasure that war in your members:

James looked back to the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus also used murder to express more than actual killing, but also as an inward condition of heart, shown outwardly by anger ().

“The word kill [murder] is startling and meant to startle; James sought to force his readers to realize the depth of the evil in their bitter hatred toward others.” (Hiebert)

Yet you do not have: This points to the futility of this life lived for the desires for pleasure. Not only is it a life of conflict, but it is also a fundamentally unsatisfied life.

Yet you do not have because you do not ask: The reason these destructive desires exist among Christians is because they do not seek God for their needs (you do not ask). James reminds us here of the great power of prayer, and why one may live unnecessarily as a spiritual pauper, simply because they do not pray, or do not askwhen they pray.

You ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures

We must remember that the purpose of prayer is not to persuade a reluctant God to do our bidding. The purpose of prayer is to align our will with His, and in partnership with Him, to ask Him to accomplish His will on this earth ().

But he gives more grace: “Sin seeks to enter, grace shuts the door; sin tries to get the mastery, but grace, which is stronger than sin, resists, and will not permit it. Sin gets us down at times, and puts its foot on our neck; grace comes to the rescue… Sin comes up like Noah’s flood, but grace rides over the tops of the mountains like the ark.” (Spurgeon)

God resists the proud: At the same time, James reminds us that this grace only comes to the humble. Grace and pride are eternal enemies. Pride demands that God bless me in light of my merits, whether real or imagined. But grace will not deal with me on the basis of anything in me – good or bad – but only on the basis of who God is.

But gives grace to the humble: It isn’t as if our humility earns the grace of God. Humility merely puts us in a position to receive the gift He freely gives.

Veron Doerksen- If the first punctuation is used (and this seems probable), the last verb in each couplet suggests a resultant act: “You lust and do not have, so you murder.” Murdering, fighting, and quarreling are results of unsatisfied lust and envy results of thwarted desires. The object of lust is not mentioned, but in the context it relates closely to “pleasures” (v. 1). Satisfaction through self-gratification is elusive. The insatiable drive for more leads to murder. David’s lust for Bathsheba led to Uriah’s death (2 Sam. 11:2–17), and Ahab’s covetousness led to Naboth’s murder (1 Kings 21:1–13). It is out of the heart of man that murder springs (Mark 7:21). James is probably using “murder” in a figurative sense much like he spoke of “conflicts” (v. 1). John spoke of those who hated as murderers (1 John 3:15). In like manner Jesus taught that to be angry with a brother is to kill (Matt. 5:21–22). Through jealousy and strife one can destroy a brother’s reputation.