From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of 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 the friendship of 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. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
I do riot interpret what the Apostle here saith of wars and fightings, as nationally considered, for it should all along be kept in remembrance, that the Apostle is writing to the Church. And as every believer knoweth well in his own experience, what an holy war, from the moment of regeneration to the day of death, is carried on between the flesh and the spirit, he is here taught from whence to trace the origin, and where alone, in the Lord, to seek strength, Nothing but grace, and the continual renewing of grace, can help the child of God, to subdue the flesh, with its affections and lusts, And hence that sweet promise of Jesus to his people. I will water it every moment, Isaiah 27:3 And sure enough I am, though in a thousand instances, I see not how it is done, neither can trace the footsteps, or comings of the Lord; yet sure I am, that did not the Lord Jesus by his Holy Spirit continually renew the soul, our spirit would soon languish, and wither, and die. Reader! cherish the thought! Paul knew it, and spake confidently of it. Though our outward man perish, (saith he;) yet our inward man is renewed day by day, 2 Corinthians 4:14, But Jesus carrieth the matter higher than his servant, for he saith, that he will water his vineyard and his Church e very moment. Not day by day only. Not occasional visits now and then; but momently, that is, unceasingly: So that, even when the Church is at the lowest, and is tempted to exclaim, my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord; Lamentations 3:18. it is not so: for Jesus's watering ceaseth not. Yea, when we are causing him to serve with our sins, and wearying him with our iniquities; even then the Lord is blotting our transgression for his own sake, and will not remember our sins, Isaiah 43:24-25
I beg the Reader to notice what is said of adulterers and adulteresses! Not naturally so only, but spiritually. All coldness and departures from the Lord are adulterous acts towards our lawful right husband. And, therefore, the reproof is given to shew that friendship with the mammon of this world, is as a wife's treacherously departing from her husband.
I do not think it necessary to swell these pages with a Comment on what is so very plain, in the several verses that follow. It will be enough to observe, how blessedly the several directions are accompanied with the assurance, that the Lord's strength shall be made perfect to his people in their weakness. And I admire the very blessed manner in which the Lord puts the question, and himself answers it. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, that the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? As if the Lord had said; Do ye think, that it was not needful in God the Holy Ghost to inform the Church, that though regenerated, yet, the unrenewed part of every believer, even their body of sin and death, they carry about with them; still hath the same carnal mind, or spirit, which is enmity against God? Ought ye not to know it, and to have it always in remembrance? Can you suppose, that such an awful account would be given in the scripture, unless it were necessary; that not only in a state of unrenewed nature, but in God's children when renewed by grace, there is still in that body of sin and death they carry about with them, the same evil imaginations described, Genesis 6:5 and Romans 8:7. Reader! do you not know this, and in the dust confess it before God? I bless my God, I do! And, oh! what sad havoc would the enemy make with those lusts of mine, if God did not give more grace to keep them under, than Satan's fuel, and my corruptions, to make them burn? Oh! for grace, never to lose sight of this indwelling evil, and also this more grace of my God. And do thou, dearest Lord, as this scripture is not said in vain, grant, that it never may be in vain to my soul. But he giveth more grace. Yea, where grace is already given, and the child of God truly regenerated, the Lord will give more. And the Lord will give more of that very grace, which shall effectually oppose, and overcome my very lust, be it what it may, to evil, Oh! the sweetness, seasonableness, blessedness of this scripture, which rips open the knowledge of the wound, and gives an effectual balsam, in Christ's blood, to heal. He giveth more grace.