Bible Study Notes On Letter of James Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Bible Text

Notes and Thoughts

1 ¶ From whence come wars and fightings among you? Do they not come even from 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 friendship with 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; therefore 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 Come now, ye that say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and 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 vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15 Instead 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 how to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

4:1-17 Submission and faith.
"Where do wars and fighting come from?" asks James, when we think of wars we usually think of national wars, but this applies to all fighting, personal as well as national.
It is strange to hear that believer’s have ‘wars’ with others but we must remember that we all still have the ‘old nature’ with sinful behaviour, Gal 5:17, this causes ‘fighting’ in your own life but also affects others, 1 Peter 2:11. See also Paul’s thoughts on the matter Rom 7:15-20; Rom 8:2-4.
v2,3 James recognized this conflict problem. James was not referring to physically killing someone but destroying their character, but to God it is still the same, 1 John 3:15. We need God’s power, and need to ask, Matt 7:7-11. He can supply all our needs, Eph 3:20. We need to ask in the right way and for the right reasons. We must believe that God will respond the right way, remember it may not be in the way we asked for, 1 John 3:22; John 15:7; Matt 6:33.
v4 The readers of James epistle were obviously still "friends of the world," James says they are adulterers, having a love affair with the world. This does not mean having possessions but rather the attitude to the things of the world, are they for self or for God? Do you agree with what is happening in the world? 1 John 2:15-17; John 15:18,19.
If a person has a worldly life-style then it may be that they have never trusted Jesus as Saviour, 1 Cor 12:3; Gal 1:4.
v5,6 When we are saved God does not then leave us on our own in this world,He gave us the Holy Spirit to live in us and He is fighting against our old nature, Gal 5:17. The Spirit is jealous for us, He will never leave us in the battle. A true believer will feel the Holy Spirit if they go the wrong way.
Paul is warning his readers to take in what scripture is saying, Gal 6:7,8; Is 55:11.
v6-10 the cure for our world desires. Total faith in God is the answer, "Submit to God," be humble, "God gives grace unto the humble" v6, willing to take what ever He gives, Heb 4:16; 1 Cor 10:12,13; 1 John 5:4,5; Phil 4:13.
We must also remember that if a believer does not turn away from their desires God may start to "squeeze" that person, "God resisteth the proud," v6.
v7-9 He may withdraw His protection from the Devil or take the believer home early.
v10 "Humble yourself in the sight of God" not in sight of men, see what Jesus said about this, Matt 23:1ff.
v12 God’s in control.
v13-15 The future plans. We are to live totally relying on the Lord, He see’s everything, He controls everything. What is our plan for the future? Act 20:24, complete the task God has given me. Plan and pray each through, if there is no apparent answer, go the way you feel is right, if your wrong, God will show you. Prov 3:3-5. Read and think about Psalm 25.
v16,17 Thinking that you know the answer, this is a sin, we should be as Paul said in 2 Cor 3:5. Trust in God only. Let our hearts be open to the Spirits leading in all our actions. Note and remember, v17 especially.

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The Letter of James