James 4



James 4                                                                                                     James 4    James 4     James 4

James 4:1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
  • Lusts, even of your pleasures 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.
  • Because on account of your not asking.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
  • Amiss with evil intent
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
  • Is constituted, or constitutes himself
5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
  • This can only refer to the general testimony of Scripture that the natural man is prone to selfish desires, leading to envy of others who possess the things desired.
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
  • Humble = lowly as in James 1:9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
  • Grace, This has reference to the now nature, compare to 1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
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.
  • James 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
  • Purify, Used of Levitical purifying four times. Used here, in a spiritual sense.
  • 1 Peter 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
  • Heaviness Only here. It means casting down the eyes.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
  • 2 Corinthians 11:7 Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
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.
  • Speak . . . evil,  Speak against, or backbite.
12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
  • Another, The texts read "neighbour", as in James 2:8 If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
  • John 2:13 And the Jews Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem,
    14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
    15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;
    16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.
    17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
    18 Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

15 For that 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 to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
  • And not to be confident in the good success of worldly business, but mindful ever of the uncertainty of this life, to commit ourselves and all our affairs to God's providence.
 
Exactly 2520 years from the exile of Benjamin, Iceland became an independent nation.
 
  The first tribe to be conquered by the Assyrians was Manasseh, in 745 B.C. Exactly 2520 years later America became a nation on July 4, 1776.
 
• Study the book: Abrahamic Covenant, (A study outline of the identity of God's people) By E. Raymond Capt - page 25

 
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