James 4:2 - Printer Friendly

ESV: You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

NIV: You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.

NASB: You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

CSB: You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.

NLT: You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.

KJV: 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.

NKJV: You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

James continues making the case to his Christian readers that they are living according to the world's wisdom. They are not trusting God to provide while serving others, which is the wisdom of heaven.

Driven by bitter envy to get what they want, and a deep ambition to serve themselves, James's readers continue to kill, quarrel, and fight. This is not necessarily a direct accusation of murder or mayhem. A major point of James's words are the effects which worldly wisdom leads to. We have no way of knowing how violent this conflict had become. Had someone actually been murdered, or was James equating their hatred of each other to murder? Perhaps, but regardless of the severity, it's clear these religious people are off track.

At the heart of the problems is their response to not getting what they want out of life. In those moments when we realize that what we want is still out of our grasp, we always have a choice. The world's wisdom tells us to sacrifice everything to get what we want, including the welfare of others. The world will tell us to fight, to scratch, to wound, if that's what it takes. Driven by envy for what they want, James's readers are frustrated when they keep coming up empty. So they fight.

James identifies their root problem: These believers in God refused to trust Him to provide what they needed. They refused to even ask God for what they wanted. God might say no, after all. They were not willing to trust that if God would not give it to them, it was something they could live without for now. They would rather hurt someone else in attempting to provide it for themselves.

James 4:1–12 builds on the end of chapter 3, describing how living according to the world's wisdom has led to great conflict among James's Christian readers. They were fighting with each other because they couldn't get what they wanted. James says that living that way is adultery. It's ''cheating'' on God. He calls them to quit their friendship with the world, humble themselves, repent from their sin, and receive God's grace. God is the Lawgiver and Judge, not man.

What was causing fights and quarrels among the Christians to whom James was writing? They were living by the world's wisdom. This false perspective says human beings should do whatever it takes to get what they want in this life, even if it hurts other people. James says that to live that way is adultery, but God gives grace. Christians should repent and move close to God again. We should trust Him to provide, to be the Judge, and to lift us up in His time. In humility, we must acknowledge that all of our plans are dependent on Him, and He can change them at any moment.

The book of James is about what it means for a Christian to live a life of complete trust in God. Chapter 4 builds on the end of chapter 3, where James described the self-seeking wisdom of the world. Following this worldliness was the cause of fights among James's Christian readers. He called them to repent and, in humility, receive God's grace. He called them to stop making their plans for business as if they could accomplish anything without God. In chapter 5, he will continue to talk about the dangers of trusting riches instead of the Lord.

The book of James is about specifically understanding what saving faith looks like. How does faith in Christ reveal itself in a believer's life? What choices does real trust in God lead us to make? Those are the questions James answers. Most scholars believe the writer was Jesus' half-brother, a son born to Joseph and Mary after Jesus' birth. James may not have come to believe Jesus was the Messiah until after the resurrection. Eventually, though, he became one of the leaders of the Christian church in Jerusalem. This is possibly the earliest-written of all the New Testament books, around AD 40–50. James addresses his letter to Jewish Christians scattered around the known world.