james 4 commentary easy english

Only he can decide to save people or to destroy them. . You just want to use these things to make yourselves happy. . Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 Peter 2:14, specially the margin. We must be sorry about the wrong things that we have done. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 4:1-10 Since all wars and fightings come from the corruptions of our own hearts, it is right to mortify those lusts that war in the members. (17) Therefore . . That is because you ask for the wrong reason. . A large number of the Christians had left *Jerusalem and had goneto live in other countries. You are giving yourself authority to decide what the Law says. If you judge another believer, then you are judging the law too. 10 Think about yourselves as small in front of the Lord God. Read James 4 commentary using Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Complete). James 4:6-10. . .—Excepting “God,” instead of “Lord,” this is an exact quotation from the LXX. .—Do not “back-bite,” as the same word is translated in Romans 1:30, and 2 Corinthians 12:20. Ye lust, and because ye have not what ye lust after ( james 4:1 james 4:2), ye envy your neighbor who has, and so the spirit of envy leads you on to "fight." 13 Some of you say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to a certain city. We learn the converse to the evil of vainglory in life, namely, the good which may be wrought by every one. . You want to do bad things that you think will make you happy. What does James 4:3 mean? Patience Until the Lord's Coming. James 4:10, KJV: "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." To what extent is your life directed by the knowledge that Christ is coming back? Lust, envy, strife, and murder:—like the tale of human passion in all ages, the dreadful end draws on. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/ebc/james-4.html. “Let us not weakly slide into the treason: Whosoever therefore will be (or, wills to be) a friend of the world is the enemy of God.—The choice is open; here is no iron fate, no dread necessity: but the wrong determination of the soul constitutes it henceforth as an ally of Satan. (12) There is one lawgiver . And to break God's commands, is to speak evil of them, and to judge them, as if they laid too great a restraint upon us. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 4:1-10 Since all wars and fightings come from the corruptions of our own hearts, it is right to mortify those lusts that war in the members. Go to, To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use our convenient, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, Commentary Critical and Explanatory - Unabridged, Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible, Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures. 1 You very often fight and quarrel among yourselves. .—Read, Humble yourselves therefore before the Lord, and He shall lift you up. Genesis 2:7 for the inbreathing of the Spirit, with any such chapter as Deuteronomy 32 for His jealous inquisition. (1) From whence come wars . . ?—More correctly thus. So you argue and fight. 17 So, you know the right thing that you ought to do. But you do not have these things because you do not ask God for them. Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807, https://www.facebook.com/BibleEasyEnglish/. .—Better thus: Ye desire, and have not; ye kill, and envy, and cannot obtain; ye fight and make war; ye have not, because ye ask not; ye ask and receive not, because ye ask that ye may spend it on your lusts. You cannot love sin and love God at the same time. This is a valid way to outline this section. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?—i.e., the state of being an enemy to God, not one of simpler enmity with Him. He wants very much to keep us for himself.’ 6 But God will be very kind to us and he will help us. We have the law of God, which is a rule to all; let us not presume to set up our own notions and opinions as a rule to those about us, and let us be careful that we be not condemned … Part of the reason for this is that James is like Proverbs in that many of its verses really stand alone in their content. As noted in the introduction, James here included a series of blunt, power-packed exhortations, running through James 4:10. So God will give to us all that we need. Thus many understand these expressions, because God himself represented his relation to the Jews as his people under the idea of a marriage, and because the prophets, in conformity to that idea, represented the idolatry of the Jews as adultery. .—Referring to James 4:13, in some such a continuation of reproof as this: Woe unto you that say, . We must listen to God. . In those days, servants were not free. See also Note on 2 Corinthians 12:7. Stop doing wrong things. Many a man of quiet Christian life will thank God by-and-by, when he knows even as he is known (1 Corinthians 13:12), that not a few of his prayers were unanswered, or at least that they were not granted in the way which he had desired. But the burden of this hateful depravity drove of old men like Lucretius to suicide rather than endurance; and its mantle of despair is on all the religions of India at the present time—matter itself being held to be evil, and eternal. 4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Grieve, therefore, with a “godly sorrow not to be repented of” (2 Corinthians 7:10)—the remorseful anguish of a Peter, and not a Judas. 1 This letter is from me, James. James 4. Study the bible online using commentary on James 4 and more! a parallel scripture, Romans 14:4. (Comp. In this way the cumulative force of St. James’s remarks is best preserved. James.). In English Version the sense is, "the (natural) spirit that hath its dwelling in us lusts with (literally, 'to,' or 'towards') envy." James says ‘Hello’. James 4:2 Parallel Verses [⇓ See commentary ⇓] James 4:2, NIV: "You desire but do not have, so you kill. You even kill other people. James 4:8 so clean sin out of … “God,” says Thomas à Kempis, “protects the humble and delivers him; He loves and consoles him; He inclines Himself towards the humble man, He bestows on him exceeding grace, and after his humiliation He lifts him up to glory; He reveals his secrets to the humble, and sweetly draws and leads him to Himself.”, (11) Speak not evil . v, 4), even the promised comfort of God. At the end of what has been considered the second portion of this Epistle, there is a last series of rebukes. Tweet . # 4:9 Some people fight and argue. The good reason why not is given in the graceful interjection “brothers.” Omit the conjunction in the next phrase, and read as follows:—. suggested apparently by those already given. James 4:4. 1905. Many worthy people have much sympathy with David, in their effort to hold their tongue and keep “silence, yea even from good words;” truly it is “pain and grief” to them (Psalms 39:3). All that he reproves is the setting up of our own tribunals, in which we are at once prosecutor, witness, law, lawgiver, and judge; not to say executioner as well. James 4:10, ESV: "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you." In “The Beautiful Legend” there is a strife between the call of duty to give out a dole of bread to the hungry, and the temptation to linger in religious ecstasy over a vision of Christ. He wrote to encourage them to live asChristians should, i… Song of Songs: The Beautiful Woman behind the Veil - by Sarah Ruth. Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13.). Learn how to understand almost everything you hear right now in 4 easy steps! But if you know that and you do not do the right thing, then you have done a wrong thing. Happily the Christian philosopher understands this; and with the very cry of wretchedness, “Who shall deliver me?” can answer, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24-25). Used by Permission. . “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew 7:1). So, these Christians no longer had the day-to-day contact with theirleaders. We must be sorry about the wrong things that we have done. “Ye kill and play the zealot” would be still nearer the original: for, as with Jedburgh justice in the old Border wars, hanging preceded the trial, so with these factions in Jerusalem death went first, almost before the desire to deal it. Do not be happy but be very upset. James 4 – The Humble Dependence of a True Faith A. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. English Standard Version Update. Make your minds clean. 2. We receive God’s *grace. .—How different is the case with you, cries St. James; you actually glory and delight in your own self-confidence and presumption, and every such rejoicing is evil. They are being like the Devil. James 4. You should know that! .—The Apostle would reason next with the worldly; not merely those abandoned to pleasure, but any and all absorbed in the quest of gain or advancement. Let the foolish laughter at sin, which was “as the crackling of thorns” before the avenging fire (Ecclesiastes 7:6), be turned to mourning; banish the joyous smile for the face cast down to heaviness, and so await the blessedness of those that mourn (Matt. But the *apostles and leaders of the church did notgo. Bibliography InformationEllicott, Charles John. “Woe unto you, when all men speak well of you” (Luke 6:26), for the world, as our Lord has taught us, must “love its own” (John 15:19). The original is represented a little more closely, thus: Today and tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade and get gain. Email. Nevertheless, remember, He gave the Israelites “their desire, and sent leanness withal into their soul” (Psalms 106:15). Stop laughing and instead be sad. You lust and do not have. for “lusteth to envy,” or enviously, would imply evil and not good. The term is really pleasures, but in an evil sense, and therefore “lusts.” “The desires of various sorts of pleasures are,” says Bishop Moberly, “like soldiers in the devil’s army, posted and picketed all over us, in the hope of winning our members, and so ourselves, back to his allegiance, which we have renounced in our baptism.” St. Peter (1 Peter 2:11) thus writes in the same strain of “fleshly lusts, which war against the soul”; and St. Paul knew also of this bitter strife in man, if not actually in himself, and could “see another law” in his members—the natural tendency of the flesh—“warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which is in his members” (Romans 7:23). We must listen to God. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. E. Verse 5 is very ambiguous because. (See Wordsworth.) Copyright StatementThese files are public domain.Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. But he is kind to people who do not feel important.’ 7 So, obey God's authority. But the apostolic condemnation is in no way meant to condone a vicious life, and leave it unalarmed and self-contented; for boldness in rebuke thereof we have the example of John the Baptist. .—A difficulty presents itself in this verse—whether the application be general, or a particular comment on the words preceding. easyenglish.bibleBooks > EasyEnglish Bible >. You try to take things that are not yours. Jesus prepares the way for us to approach God the King. James 4:3. ... Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible. He traces the conflict raging around him to the fount and origin of evil within. He will flee.—Or, he shall flee. Our Authorised version does not allow of this apparent reference to the Spirit of God indwelling His human temples (1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19, et seq.) (9) Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep.—For wretchedness, sorrow, and tears are the three steps of the homeward way to peace and God. It should be, ye adulteresses! 12 God is the one who gave his Law to people. The word for “boastings” is the same as that translated “the pride of life” in 1 John 2:16—i.e., its braggart boastfulness, not the innocent gladness of living. So you kill and are jealous of others. (7) Submit yourselves therefore to God. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. And if God be just, so also is He jealous (Exodus 20:5). In fact, it is a thing of the past, not of time, but completed action on the part of God—“If the Lord have willed it, we shall both live and do this or that.” Such is far, be it noted, from Fatalism, in even its best form, as under the teaching of Islam. .—Punctuate thus: He that speaketh evil of his brother, judgeth his brother; speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law. James 4 Commentary, One of over 110 Bible commentaries freely available, this commentary provides notes on all 66 books of the Bible, and contain more than 7,000 pages of material Sinful desires and affections stop prayer, and the working of our desires toward God. And thus it is that omission is at times worse than commission; and more souls are in jeopardy for things left undone than for things done. Then he will lift you up to a good place. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. So, you fight and you quarrel with each other. But “to take the law into one’s own hands” is to break it, and administer inequitably. If we only want to make ourselves happy, God will not hear us. Many commentators have been puzzled to say whence the words came which are quoted as authoritative by St. James. James 4 is included in this fourth subdivision. Doth the Spirit, which took up His abode in you, lust to envy? “I,” said He by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 14:4), “will answer him that cometh to Me, according to his idols.” What greater curse could fall than an eternity of avarice to the miser, of pollution to the sensual, of murder to the violent? You do not have because you do not ask God." Wordly and fleshly lusts are distempers, which will not allow content or satisfaction. We used to be God’s enemies (James 4:4). “For thus saith the high and lofty One” (Isaiah 57:15), “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Comp. And in proof of real conversion there must be the outward lamentation, as well as the inward contrition. For the word ‘receive’, Paul uses the word ‘prosagoge’, which means ‘introduction’. 11 My Christian friends, do not say bad things against each other. Warning Against Worldliness. (16) But now . So God will give to us all that we need. Suppose ye that the Scripture speaketh in vain? version of Proverbs 3:34, which reads in our Bibles, “Surely He scorneth the scorners, but He giveth grace unto the lowly.” It is again brought forward by St. Peter (1 Peter 5:5), and seems to have been a common saying—“a maxim of the wise that had become, as it were, a law of life.”. Surely the substance was sufficient for him, as for other inspired writers, without a slavish adherence to the form: comp. He that speaketh evil . The forces of good and evil divide the land so sharply that there is no debatable ground, nor even halting-place between. James 4 Commentary, One of over 110 Bible commentaries freely available, this volume commentary on the Bible is highly regarded for his very prudent and judicious expositions Do you know why that happens? instead of saying, “If the Lord will”. 1. Don't You Know the Choice to Be Made? James 4. 15 So, what you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord agrees and we are still alive, then we will do this or that.’ 16 But instead, you talk about what you have decided to do. Whence are wars, and whence fightings among you? We will buy and sell things, and we will become rich.’ If you say things like that, listen to me. There cannot be a passive condition to the faith of Christ: “he that is not with Me is against Me” (Matthew 12:30). Christians are brethren. The sense is familiar to us from many passages in the Old Testament, in which God speaks of Israel in a similar manner, e.g., Psalms 73:27; Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 2:2; Ezekiel 16 passim; Ezekiel 23:37-43; Hosea 2:2. So, you must not judge your friends. "Commentary on James 4:4". . Where do wars and fights come from among you? God resisteth the proud . You do not have, because you do not ask. 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