In Contrast To Those Who Have Received The Wisdom That Is From Above Are Those Who Yield To The Desires Of The Flesh And Seek To Be Friends Of A World Which Ignores Christ (James 4:1-5).
Having spoken of those who have received the wisdom from above, and through it have found peace, and a message of peace, James now turns to look at those who have refused the wisdom that is from above and are living by their own wisdom, following the endless search for pleasure. And he does it with powerful illustrations which, like many of those of Jesus, are deliberately exaggerated. He speaks of wars and battles, of murder and of adultery, but all as exaggerated pictures of their situation. The point is that they are gross sinners, and are to recognise the fact. He declares that the consequences for them of their false attitudes are ‘wars', and ‘battles', both nationally, locally and personally, together with an adulterous attitude towards God and the world which brings them into condemnation (compare Ezekiel 16). James is here using the strongest language possible in order to bring out their full involvement in bringing displeasure to God. They are willing to ‘go to war and murder', even if for the most part what they actually do is only quarrel and squabble and fight verbally and spit hate, for war and murder is truly in their hearts. The passage is expanding on the idea of the desires that cause temptation and result in sin and death (James 1:13-15). It is a picture of those in the church who have lost their first love.
The ‘natural man' in each failing church member longs for the pleasures that he desires, and then is ready to fight and quarrel for them. He is filled with desire for pleasure and then yields to the temptation (compare James 1:13-15). But in spite of the fact that he squabbles and hates and ‘kills', being filled with envy at others and coveting what they have, he does not obtain what he is looking for. For what he is looking for is elusive. It is not to be found in the world. Yet, if only he could see it, it is actually there waiting for him, for it is available from above. But the fact is that he does not have it because he does not ask for it from the One Who could give it to him (James 1:5). Indeed the last thing he thinks of is looking to God, for he does not consider that God can give him what he wants. And then if he does decide to ask for it from God he does not receive it, because he asks for it for the wrong reasons. He should thus pause and recognise that his problem is that what he wants is not what God wants, but what the world wants, and thus to want that is to be contrary to God. He should therefore ask himself, ‘Has God put my spirit within me so that I might just go on being filled with desires that simply result in envy of others, or has He done it in order that I might seek after Him?'
Analysis.
o From where come wars and from where come battles among you? Do they not come from there, even from your pleasures that war in your members? (James 4:1).
o You desire, and have not. You kill, and envy, and cannot obtain. You fight and war; you have not, because you ask not (James 4:2).
o You ask, and do not receive, because you ask for the wrong reasons, that you may spend it in your pleasures (James 4:3).
o You adulteresses. Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore would be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:4).
o Or do you think that the Scripture speaks in vain? Does the spirit which He made to dwell in us go on longing until it envies (‘unto envying)? (James 4:5).
Note that in ‘a' men's pleasures are responsible for his wars and for his battles. And in the parallel his longings are contrary to the spirit that God has put within him. In ‘b' the concentration and efforts of some of his readers are expended in order to obtain the things of this world, and in the parallel they are seeking to be friends with the world, which involves being at enmity with God. Central is the thought that if they do not look to God for His will then all their prayers will be in vain.
James is now probably speaking mainly to those in the churches who are mere enquirers, or onlookers, or hangers on, although there may even at this stage be more genuine believers who had become complacent in their faith, and thus lukewarm (as in Revelation 2-3 where it is even more apparent). These are the opposite of the genuine seekers after wisdom of James 3:13; James 3:15; James 3:17. And he points out that because their spirits are not looking to God, they fail to receive what in their hearts they are looking for. The consequence is that they fight and squabble with each other, or even go to war, in order to obtain what they think will give them pleasure and satisfy their desires. But in fact they never receive it, because they are looking in the wrong direction.