CHAPTER 4
James has pointed out that the wise man is a peace-loving man. Now he is reminded of the tragic strife that often exists among believers. What is the cause of it? Why are there so many unhappy homes and so many churches torn by division? Why are there so many bitter feuds among Christians and Christian workers? The reason is that we are unceasingly striving to satisfy our lust for pleasures and possessions, and to outdo others.
Verses 1-2a – The sad fact is that there are wars and fights among Christians. To suggest that this paragraph does not apply to believers is unrealistic and it takes away from the passage all its value for us. What causes all this fighting? It’s the strong desires within us that are constantly struggling to be satisfied. There is the lust to accumulate material possessions. There is the drive for prestige. There is the craving for pleasure, for the gratification of the body’s appetite. These powerful forces are at work within us. We are never satisfied, we always want more. And yet it seems we are constantly frustrated in our desire to get what we want. The unfulfilled desire and longing becomes so powerful that we trample on those who seem to hinder our progress. James says, “You kill.” He uses the word in a figurative sense. We don’t literally kill, but anger, jealousy and cruelty that we generate are actually murder in embryo.
Verses 2b-3 – We “covet, but we cannot have what we want.” We want to have more and better things than others. And in the attempt, we find ourselves quarrelling and hurting one another. The sources of bickering and strife among believers are the desire for more and jealousy of others. “Keeping up with the Joneses” is a polite name for it; more accurately, we should call it greed, covetousness and envy. People are slow to learn that true pleasure is not found this way, but in contentment with food and clothing (1 Timothy 6:8). Prayer is the right approach to this problem. “Don’t argue. Don’t fight. Pray.” James says: “You do not have because you do not ask God.” Instead of taking these things to our Lord in prayer, we try to get what we want by our own efforts.
What a great lesson we have in these first three verses! If we were content with what God has given us, so many problems and so much unrest would be avoided. If we loved our neighbours as ourselves, and were more interested in sharing than in acquiring, what peace would result! If we would follow our Saviour’s command to forsake all instead of to accumulate, to lay up treasures in heaven rather than on earth, most fights and contentions would cease.
Verse 4 – James condemns the love for material things as spiritual adultery. God wants us to love Him first and foremost. Covetousness is a form of idolatry. It means we strongly desire what God does not want for us. We have set up idols in our hearts. We value material things above the will of God. Therefore, covetousness is idolatry, and idolatry is spiritual unfaithfulness to the Lord. Worldliness (friendship with the world) is also enmity with God – “hatred toward God.” “The world” does not refer to the planet earth or nature. It is the system that man has built in an effort to satisfy the lust of the eyes, the flesh, and the pride of life. In this corrupt system there is no room for God or His Son Jesus. It may be the world of art, culture, education, science, or even religion. But it is a “world” in which the name of Jesus Christ is not welcomed or is even forbidden, except of course, as empty formality. To be a friend of this system is to be an enemy of God. It was this world that crucified our Lord. In fact, it was the religious world that played the key role in putting Him to death. How unthinkable it is that believers should ever want to walk arm-in-arm with the world that crucified their Saviour.