Lange Commentary - James 4:1 - 4:3

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Lange Commentary - James 4:1 - 4:3


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

VII. FIFTH ADMONITION

REFERENCE TO THE INFALLIBLE TOKEN OF AN UNSPIRITUAL (FANATICAL) MENTAL CONSTITUTION FOUNDED ON WORLDLY-MINDEDNESS, VIZ.: THE WARS AND FIGHTINGS IN THE JEWISH CHRISTIAN WORLD AND PARTICULARLY IN THE JEWISH WORLD BOTH INWARDLY AND OUTWARDLY.—THE CONSEQUENCE THERE-OF: FAILURE AND FRUSTRATION OF THEIR STRIVING, THEIR MURDEROUS ENVYING, THEIR WARRING AND EVEN OF THEIR PRAYING

Jam_4:1-3

1     From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 2Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and 3cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Analysis:—See above in summary of contents. The Apostle comes now to worldly-mindedness [i.e. the lust of the world—M.] which lies at the bottom of the fanatical zeal of teaching and wrangling described in the preceding chapter. He began with the appearance of visionariness (James 1), passed on to party-spirit (James 2), then portrayed fanatical striving in its outward aspect (James 3) in order to come now to the inward disruptions and breaches among the readers of his Epistle and to worldly-mindedness, which is really the root from which they spring. By and by (Jam_4:4 etc.) we shall meet it in the shape of selfishness and a bias to apostasy (James 5), as self-righteousness ripe unto judgment. The Apostle moreover passes more and more from the Jewish Christians to the Judaizing Christians and from these to the real Judaistic Jews themselves. This suggests the remark that James put this Epistle into the hands of the Jewish Christians in order that it might influence all Jews, as it were, as a missionary instruction to the converted over against the unconverted, and to the rightly-converted over against the badly-converted. Notice the rapid transition from the thought immediately preceding, viz.: that righteousness can prosper only in peace, to the impressive question: ðüèåí ðüëåìïé , the answer to which is contained in a second question appealing (Wiesinger) to the conscience of the readers (Huther).

Jam_4:1. Whence then are wars and whence fightings?—Not only dogmatical disputes between the teachers (Schneckenburger), or civil contentions concerning “meum” and “tuum” (de Wette). It is a true picture of the hostile dissensions of the Jewish people. Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Alexandrians, Samaritans—on this basis sprung up nothing but new dissensions; believing or Christian and unbelieving Jews. The former contained as yet in the germ the opposites of Nazarenes and Ebionites, of Essene-gnostic and Pharisaic-vulgar Ebionites, the latter the shocking discord which appeared in the Jewish war and during the siege of Jerusalem. The ðüëåìïé were the basis: the condition of war [warlike attitude], the ìÜ÷áé , single quarrels and fightings, which certainly partook occasionally of the character of skirmishes and at a later period even of battles; this is denied by Laurentius: “non loquitur Apostolus de bellis et cædibus, sed de mutuis dissidiis, litibus, jurgiis et contentionibus.” [Alford renders “militate.” To act the soldier is the real meaning of óôñáôåõïìÝíùí .—M. ].

Is it not hence?—The explanation; for ἐíôåῦèåí is not a separate question: from hence? (Michaelis).

From your lusts. ἡäïíáß are more than ἐðéèõìßáé (Huther); they are desires actualized, a life of sensual indulgence (Luther: voluptuousness, Wollüste). These wage war chiefly in the members. The members need hardly be emphasized as being the camp of the lusts (Wiesinger); nor is the idea that they war against the soul (Rom_7:23; 1Pe_2:11; de Wette) the leading idea. Theile, Schneckenburger and others rightly apply the term to the war of the lusts among themselves. Huther thinks it denotes an inward warfare against our fellow-men, but ἡäïíáß would hardly be the most suitable word to bring out that idea. We might however think of the members in a restricted and in a wider sense; the members of individuals and the members of the people. From the individual Jew, whose lusts become inimically opposed in his members, the division and dissension between spiritual selfishness and vain worldly-mindedness are communicated to the members of the whole nation. Wiesinger thinks the fightings denote opposition of the ἐðéèõìåῖí and the ïὐê ἔ÷åéí . The fruitless struggling however is only an appearance and a judgment of this fighting. It is described in four gradations: 1, desiring; 2, murdering and envying; 3, fighting and warring; 4, praying and not receiving. To the first corresponds not having, to the second not obtaining, to the third an increased not having, to the fourth an increased not receiving. The first grade denotes Judaism full of chiliastic worldly-mindedness up to the time of the New Testament. The second grade describes particularly the attitude of the Jews towards the Christians. The third grade comprises the development of the Jewish war. The fourth is mainly the history of Judaism after the destruction of Jerusalem. Such a definite mapping out of periods was of course not intended by the Apostle, but it describes the process of the development of Judaism as unfolded by history. The common construction that the reference here is either to the desire of individuals or of entire churches, and the limitation of the object of that desire to worldly riches and glory are inadequate to the prophetical relation in which James stood to his people. [Alford cites a remarkable parallel from Plato, Phædo. p. 66, c: êáὶ ãὰñ ðïëÝìïõò êáὶ óôÜóåéò êáὶ ìÜ÷áò ïὐäὲí ἄëëï ðáñÝ÷åé ἤ ôὸ óῶìá êáὶ áἱ ôïῦôïõ ἐðéèõìßáé .—M.].

Jam_4:2. Ye desire it and ye have it not.—The indefinite object at all events is implied; in the most general sense the object of the chiliastico-judaistic longing for the world [ Welt-sehnsucht, i.e. longing for the dominion of the world—M.], in the utmost variety of form and colour, nominally the fruit of righteousness, Jam_3:18. The antithesis pregnantly expresses the fruitlessness of the struggle. Ye have not has of course also the sense: ye receive not (de Wette); but it declares at the same time that they receive not, because they have not, because they are empty (Luk_19:26). [Desire is not possession; there is many a slip between the cup and the lip.—M.].

Ye murder and ye envy.—This strong expression has induced commentators to submit various modifications of it arising from their supposition that the Apostle here addresses only Christians and refers as yet only to the internal dissensions among the members themselves. Ye kill your own soul (Oecumenius), ye envy (according to the conjectured reading öèïíåῖôå , Erasmus, Calvin and many others), ye hate (according to the doctrine that hatred is murder in thought 1Jn_3:15. Luther, Estius, Wiesinger, Huther) ye strive even to murder and death (Carpzov, Schneckenburger). Winer rightly advocates the literal sense of the term. That æçëïῦôå is not mentioned first proves nothing: for the two terms are not intended to a stronger and a weaker degree of conduct, but the negative and positive sides of their conduct. They committed murder because they thought they were zealous for the glory of God. With their striving they were hunting for the fleshly ideal of the glorifying of their religion. On that account also murder must come first. The twelve tribes, however, who had already killed the Lord Himself and Stephen, who were in part responsible for the death of the Baptist and James the son of Zebedee, who had already shown the disposition to kill Paul, and who soon after did kill the author of the Epistle himself, had to submit to this address; the Christians among them were at least sympathizing with these national offences. But their acts of murder and strife were wholly in vain, as were afterwards the acts of the inquisition, the hierarchical judicial murders and religious wars of the zeal of the middle ages from the Crusade against the Albigenses to the Thirty years’ War. Ye do not attain your terrible, hypocritical end, the Babel of conscience-monarchy in the pseudo-glory of Zion.

Ye fight and ye make war.—These words are not merely explanatory of ðüëåìïé Jam_4:1 (Huther), for the primary reference is no longer to the quarrels among the Jews themselves. Their individual words become at last open fighting, and this leads to open warfare. Hence ïὐê ἔ÷åôå is repeated here, and, as we read with Griesbach and Lachmann, with êáὶ preceding it, “and yet ye have not, i.e. ye get it not.” We join this with what goes before in order to constitute the third antithesis, not with what follows (Huther) to introduce the specification of the cause of all their disappointments.—Not till then follows the reason, not only of the frustration of their warring, but also of their murderous striving and desiring. All lacks the true life of prayer, which purifies, hallows and adjusts our efforts to the Divine disposition of affairs. But the probable protestation of the Judaists: “we pray much,” prompts the Apostle to add an ironical self-correction which brings out the fourth and most terrible antithesis. Their asking ( áἰôåῖí ) is evil praying ( áἰôåῖóèáé . The Apostle having introduced an interchange of Active and Middle—see Winer, p. James 297: Matthiä 2. p. 1097.—he may here either take the Active as denoting importunate asking or the Middle as denoting egotistical praying for oneself. The latter is probably intended.), and for the reason that they pray for the help of Jehovah for a fulness of prosperity which they intend to squander in the lusts of their worldly mind. We have here to remind the reader of the visionary expectations of the Jews during the destruction of Jerusalem, of their gloomy lamentations in the post-christian synagogue (how they make God Himself weep over the unhappiness of His people) and of their vain, worldly striving and their description of the most sensual carousals in the future Kingdom of God.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. It is indeed a sad contrast if we oppose the name of Christ as that of the Prince of Peace (Isa_9:6) to the wretched quarrels and disputes of those who call themselves Christians and yet not uncommonly carry on such quarrels in His name. The question of James “Whence are wars and whence fightings among you?” may be addressed with equal pertinence to the countless sects and parties in just as many Christian communities in every age of the Church’s history. The cause is really still the same now which it was in the Apostolic age, viz.: the carnal mind which exhibits the selfishness of the natural man, after he has been baptized. The Church of Christ, which ought to be a Zion of peace, has in consequence become a Babel of confusion. But the serpent-seed of discord bears even now the same unhappy fruit which it did then. The sword which the loveless man turns against his brother, wounds his own hands, and in proportion as men covet what is their neighbour’s, they themselves grow poorer in true peace.

2. There is no greater enemy of the true spirit of prayer than the spirit of quarrelsomeness and contention, cf. 1Pe_3:7. It is impossible to find faith where love is wanting; how then can the unbelieving prayer of an ἀíὴñ äßøõ÷ïò (cf. Jam_1:6-8) obtain any thing at the Lord’s hand? Many a complaint of prayers not answered would surely cease, if men did not confine themselves to hearing their hearts only concerning the disappointment they have experienced, but would also examine their consciences concerning hidden guilt, which renders the hearing of prayer on the part of God morally impossible. Cf. Isa_1:11-15.

3. Prayer in order to be well-pleasing to God must ever go hand-in-hand with a God-consecrated life. There is no greater horror in the sight of God than prayer which irreconcilably contradicts the inward and outward life. Cf. Pro_28:9; Psa_34:16-17.

4. The Christian is permitted, to pray also for outward things, provided it be done in the spirit of absolute submission and resignation to the Divine Will, to the glory of His name and in the name of Christ. The rule Mat_6:33, applies also here. If this mind is wanting, prayer will not be followed by peace filling the heart, and this very want of true peace consequent upon prayer is an intimation that we need not expect the fulfilment of the desire uttered by us in prayer. Cf. Conférences sur la prière, par J. Martin, Paris, 1849, p. 3 etc.

5. Prayer is evil first respect of the object, if we pray for some vain, unprofitable or foolish thing; secondly in consideration of the disposition, if we pray in a vain, covetous and boisterous spirit, that is without submission and filial trust, without leaving every thing at the disposal of God. Heubner.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The disputes and quarrels in the Christian Church—a great proof how little the wisdom which is from above is understood and practised, Jam_3:16.—Every sensual and selfish lust which is not killed in the heart of the Christian, sooner or later must work disastrously to the detriment of fraternal communion.—Disappointed hopes I should not fill us with bitterness and hatred against one another, but rather prompt us to humility and believing, confiding prayer.—It is not sufficient to pray only, all depends upon the manner how we pray and in what spirit.—God not a God of disorder, but a God of peace in all churches of the saints, cf. 1Co_14:33.—The history of prayers that have not been heard. Examples: Deu_3:26; Joh_11:3-6; 2Co_12:8-9 etc.—Prayer the true thermometer of the spiritual life—He who prays illy need not expect more than he who prays not at all.—What our Lord said to Salome applies to many a praying man, Mat_20:22.—In prayer we must not think first and foremost of ourselves, but chiefly of the glory of God and the welfare of our neighbour.—A Christian prays not that he may bend the will of God according to his will, but in order that he may shape his will according to God’s.—No prayer without work, no work without prayer.—

By caring and by fretting,

By agony and fear,

There is of God no getting,

But prayer He will hear.

Mit Sorgen und mit Grämen

Und mit selbsteigner Pein,

Lässt Gott sich gar nichts nehmen,

Es muss erbeten sein.      cf. Psa_127:1-2.

Starke:—Even with believers Satan attempts to bring about all manner of evil. He sows tares among the wheat, Mat_13:25.

Langii, Op.:—The wars of the world are nothing but outbreaks of the evil heart, in which the evil lusts fight against God, against man and also among themselves, Psa_140:3.

Cramer:—Many a man rakes and scrapes and strives to get everything for his own use to no purpose, and labours tooth and nail but only hinders himself therewith.

Quesnel:—It is a great mercy of God not to hear men if they offer unjust prayers, Psa_66:18.

Stier:—It is natural that the heathen, before Christ teaches them peace, break the battle-bow (Zec_9:10) and live fighting and warring with one another; but where Christendom knows and confesses the name of God, peace ought surely to be there. To be sure, this so-called Christendom upon earth, inclosing (not contrary to the Divine purpose) as a net many nations, is far from being the Church of Saints, the Body of the Lord, animated and occupied by His Spirit; hence to this day bloody wars are waged even between Christian nations, and it cannot be otherwise because of righteousness against unrighteousness; the vigorous conduct of such wars is the Christian duty of rulers and ruled (kings and subjects) in the right place to which the sword put by God into hands [of lawful authority—M.] belongs. Moreover the good fight of faith must go on among Christian nations, states and churches, the sword of the spirit must be drawn against whatever is unchristian and ungodly, just as every holy man must fight for peace with the. devil and with the world. But James makes no reference whatever to this good fight; he doubtless includes pure zeal for the truth in love, directed against all unrighteousness and whatever belong thereto in word or deed, in the peace in which the fruit of righteousness should be sown (Jam_3:18). But for all, enough remains for this cutting question: “Whence are wars and whence are fightings among you, quarrelling and discord in word and deed among brethren and members of the Church of God, evil wars on a small scale like those without among the nations?”

Jakobi:—Do not even desire that which cannot benefit thee in things pertaining to God, and whatever thou dost desire, desire it only in as far as it furthers thy eternal salvation. But if thou prayest only in order to have and to enjoy, if thou openest communication with God only in order to receive or as it were to extort from Him worldly gifts, thou dost indeed draw nigh to Him with thy mouth and serve Him with thy lips, but thy heart is far from Him.

Neander:—James like Paul here presupposes an inward conflict in man, the conflict between flesh and spirit. As Paul calls the powers of evil the law in the members, because the body is the outward manifestation of man and because the dominion of sinful desires exhibits itself on and in the body, so James speaks of the lusts that war in the members.

Viedebandt:—The real trouble-states (Störenfriede=disturbers of peace) in the world are seated deep in the hearts of men—the worldly lusts.—Peace among men is the consequence of peace in men.—Who carries his point among men by quarrelling, is always the loser no matter how much he may gain besides, for he loses with God.—There is relatively little praying in the world and besides, much of that little is evil praying.—Most men desire the gifts of God, not God Himself.—Envy seeks quarrel and quarrel brings woe.—We find often many obstacles in the way by our desires. Why? Because self-will and pride present obstacles to Divine help.

Lisco:—The sinful lusts.—The dissensions of worldly life.—The nature and consequence of lusts.

Porubszky:—The deepest root of all strife.

[Jam_4:1. Harmony ought to reign in the members ( ἐí ôïῖò ìÝëåóéí . The word ìÝëïò signifies 1. a limb, a member; 2. a song and then the music to which a song is set, an air, a tune, a melody. ἐí ìÝëåé , in tune, harmoniously. The Greek word ìÝëïò would suggest the double idea of member and harmony to a Greek ear and I cannot but consider the selection of the word to have contemplated such an allusion), but now they exhibit strife and discord, the confusion of the camp and the violence of an armed soldiery. The lusts act the part of soldiers ( óôñáôåõïìÝíùí ), they are not only encamped within us and foraging (Alford), but they are acting the part of soldiers, engaging in all the offices of military service.—M.].

[1. öïíåýåôå . This was especially true of those bands of ëῃóôáὶ , sicarii, robbers and assassins, who, under the name of zealots, infested Jewish society at this time, and at last made the Temple itself a den of assassins. See Mat_21:13. Evidences of the blood-thirsty spirit of rage, which now like a fiend possessed the heart of large numbers of the people, may be seen in the murderous plots and violent and frequent outbreaks at this period, mentioned in Josephus (see below), and in the Gospel and Acts, such as that of Barabbas (Mat_27:16; Joh_18:40), and of Judas of Galilee, and Theudas (Act_5:36), and the Egyptian (Act_21:38), and the conspiracy against St. Paul (Act_23:12-14). There may also be a reference here to the cry of the multitude assembled from all parts of the Jewish dispersions at the Passover, “Crucify Him” (Mat_15:13-14). Wordsworth.—M.].

[Whitby cites the following passages from Josephus. Bell. Judges 4, 10; Judges 2, 1; Antiq. 18, 1; Bell. Jud. 2, 23; 7, 31; I. 405.—M.].

Footnotes:

Jam_4:1. A. B. C. Cod Sin. and al. insert a second ðüèåí .

Lange: Whence then [are] wars and whence fightings among you? Is it not hence: from your lusts, which [especially] wage war in your members.

[Whence are …? Are they not …—M.]

Jam_4:2. Rec. and some minuscules read äὲ after ἔ÷åôå . A. B. G. K. ïὐê ἔ÷åôå ; C. Cod. Sin. Vulg. Griesbach and al. êáὶ ïὐê ἔ÷åôå .

Lange: Ye desire it and ye have it not, ye murder and ye strive and ye cannot obtain it; ye fight and ye make war, and ye get it not, because ye ask not.

[Ye desire and ye have not: ye commit murder and ye envy, and are not able to obtain; ye fight and make war, and ye have not, because ye ask not.—M.]

Jam_4:3. Notice the interchange of áἰôåῖôå and áἰôåῖóèå . Cod. Sin. intensifies the last word of this sentence into êáôáäáð .

Lange: Ye ask and receive it not, because ye ask illy [desirable in your interest] that ye may waste it in your lusts.

[ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your lusts.—M.]