James 4:1-17
James continues to address the holy-people who are descendants of the 12
tribes of Israel/Jacob (James 1:1).
James 4:1-10:
4:1From-where
(comes) wars and from-where
(comes) fights among you?
(They come) from-here: out-from your delights, the
(delights)
serving-as-soldiers in your limbs, don’t
they? –
(yes.) .2You intensely-yearn and you do not
have – you murder; and you are jealous and you are not able to
attain – you fight and you war. You do not have because-of you not
asking-for-yourselves; .3you ask and you do not receive
for-this-reason-that you badly ask-for-yourselves in order that you
may spend in your delights.
.4Adulteresses!,
you knew2 that the friendship of the world is enmity of
God, don’t you? –
(yes.) Therefore
who if-ever may be deliberately-determined to be a friend of the
world he is constituted an enemy of God. .5Or
do you consider that the writing emptily says the spirit which He
caused-to-dwell-down in us earnestly-longs towards envy? –
.6but He gives greater grace, on-which-account it says,
“God arranges-Himself-against arrogant-people, but He gives grace to
humble-people.”
.7Therefore you must be subject to God – but
you must stand-against the devil and he will cause-himself-to-flee
away-from you. .8You must come-near to God and He will
come-near to you. You must clean
(your) hands, sinners, and
you must purify (your)
hearts, two-souled-people; .9you
must distress and mourn and cry; your laughter must be turned into
mourning and the joy into dejection. .10You must be
humbled before
(the) Lord and He will heighten you.
From what manner of action (how, from what source or
place) comes the state of wars and from where comes fights (the
individual battles, combats) among you? They come from here (from this
cause, origin, source):
- out-from your delights (feelings of relish of taste, pleasurable
sensations, sweetnesses),
- emphatically and specifically the delights serving as soldiers (being in
service soldiering during battle/war) in/among your limbs (the members
of your physical, fleshy body),
…don’t they? The Greek construction of this question must receive an
affirmative answer: "yes, they do.” James explains:
- You
intensely-yearn (you fix or attach strong-desire upon certain objects
other-than God and the things of God, you lust in the bad sense)
- and
you do not have (you do not hold what you intensely yearn for),
- – you murder (wrongfully kill – to try to get
what you intensely yearn for);
- and
in progression you are jealous (zealous in the bad sense, you have a
boiling or vehement passion)
- and
you are not able to attain (you are not capable of hitting the mark that
you intend to reach, you do not have the able-power or ability to
achieve your goal)
- – you fight and you war (to try to attain what you are jealous about).
You do not have on account of the fact that you are not asking for
yourselves (as an inferior asks a superior for something to be given to
him) in the correct manner from God. But instead, this is what you
currently do:
- you
actively ask for things
- and
you do not receive (take what you ask for)
…why not?...
- on
account of this reason that you badly ask for yourselves (in a bad way
or manner, contrary to God’s intention, against what God would want you
to have or do) – it is described as ‘badly’ because you ask for
something to be given to you – why? –
- for
the purpose and result that you may spend in your delights (you would be
at expense, use your resources, expend and exhaust yourselves within the
sphere of action of your feelings of relish of taste, your pleasurable
sensations, your sweetnesses).
Adulteresses (in the figurative sense regarding your behavior: you who
voluntarily debase yourselves with/by someone or something else that is
contaminating or defiling from God's viewpoint, leaving the only true
God as though He were your husband and you are going from Him and being
with some other so-called god)!,
- you
knew and still know (you see to the end of perceiving and knowing with
your minds) that the friendship of the world (the state or quality of
having the brotherly or friendly kind of love for/towards the present
world, the ordered arrangement that God created, but in this context
figuratively referring to the present condition of it still being under
the influence of satan, the devil)
- is
enmity of God (opposition, hostility for/towards God),
…don’t you? The Greek construction of this question must receive an
affirmative answer: "yes.”
Following-on logically, the person who, if it should happen at any time,
would purposefully-will to be a friend of the world – he is constituted
(caused to be placed, made to stand-down in the level or position of
being) an enemy of God (one who opposes God, who has active ill-will and
exhibits enmity and hostility towards Him).
Or do you suppose that the old covenant scripture vainly says the spirit
which He caused to dwell down in us (referring to the life of physical
mankind which God breathed into man) earnestly-longs (has a real
longing, desires on-top of what it already has) towards envy (for the
purpose of being jealous or resentful of another's considered-advantage
with the desire to gain the same 'advantage' for itself)? Does the
writing say this? No! Is that the way God made us? Are we forced to live
our everyday lives like this? Is there no freedom of will? Can we not
decide how we behave ourselves? Is that our limitation, our destiny? No!
James answers: but He gives greater grace (unmerited favor that is
comparatively more-great,
larger in quantity and quality, magnitude and importance). The
action of giving is an unforced presenting or yielding something which
one already has to someone else who does not have it yet. Grace is what
is freely bestowed without any merit on the recipient's part; it
includes reference to the attitude and quality of the one giving
something favorable to another. Grace is not bestowed because somebody
deserves a wage that is owed for something they said or did, nor because
they begged so hard, nor because they forced the giver to give! Grace is
bestowed because the giver wants to give by his own freedom of will to
the recipient - it is completely unmerited favor from the giver to the
recipient. In this context it is God Who gives greater grace, greater
than God having made mankind to continually be earnestly longing towards
envy.
On account of the truth that God gives greater grace, the writing says…
- “God
arranges Himself against (puts Himself in ordered opposition to)
- people who are haughty (those who are giving the impression of
superiority or being-over others which is evidenced by them in an
overbearing manner – the people who choose to be haughty and behave in
this manner),
- but
He gives grace to
- humble-people (those who are lowly, in a state of lowliness, in a
position of humbleness with respect to God and what He says – the people
who choose to be humble and behave in this manner).”
Therefore…
- you
must be subject to God (in subjection to, be submissive to, be arranged
in the position of being underneath God and what He says)
- but
- you
must stand against (anti, withstand, resist) the devil
- and the devil’s response will be that he will cause himself to flee (put
himself in flight) away from you.
- [The
Greek word translated "devil" comes from the words: "through" and
"throw" or "cast." The devil throws/casts things through people, like
stabbing a person from outside through the person and out the other side
with an accusation, slander, etc. Satan (the unholy spirit in
total opposition to the only true God) is sometimes called the devil,
which is one of his many names used in the Bible to describe his
characteristics, qualities, etc. The devil is the chief of the
devil-spirits (demons), which are the other angels that decided to
follow him against God and so have become unholy, unclean and evil
spirits in subordination to the devil.]
- You
must come near (draw near, come close, approach close) to God
- and God’s response will be that He will come near to you.
The following explains what must be done in order to come near to God
pertaining to the walk/behavior category.
- You
must actively clean your hands (make them free from all mixture, cause
your hands by which you do things externally not to be mixed with
something else),
- sinners (sinful people, you who miss the mark of what God says, who
swerve from His Word),
- and
you must purify your hearts (cause your hearts by which you do things
internally to become uncontaminated from God's viewpoint by any
bad-thing which may be near-by; the word "heart" literally means: the
organ which keeps the fleshy body alive by circulating the blood; but
figuratively it means: the center or core of a person's being, the seat
of his whole personal self and life),
- two-souled-people
(you who behave as though having 2 souls, evidencing your physical
living, your character and disposition in two different directions
regarding the same matter, between the two options of either believing
God’s Word or believing something else instead, double minded people);
- you
must distress (endure toil, hardship and misery)
- and
mourn (lament)
- and
cry (weeping, shedding tears, expressing grief, mourning);
- your
laughter must be turned (changed, turned back or around) into mourning
(lamentation)
- and the joy (your rejoicing must be turned) into dejection (downcast,
looking down with your eyes in sorrow).
When you come near to God…
- You
must be humbled (brought to lowliness, a low degree, caused to be in a
position of humbleness with respect to what God says) in the Lord
(God)’s sight or presence
- and He will heighten you (lift you high, elevate you, bring you into a high
position, exalt you).
[Reference: Genesis 2:7, 6:5-12; Psalm 24:4; Proverbs 3:34; Hosea 3:1-5;
Matthew 4:1-11, 5:4 and 8, 12:39, 15:19, 16:4; Luke 18:13; Romans 1:30,
6:13 and 19, 7:1-5, 23 and 24, 8:7; I Corinthians 2:11-13, 5:2; II
Corinthians 7:10, 10:3, 11:1; Ephesians 4:27, 5:21-33, 6:11-13;
Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 3:5; II Timothy 3:2; Titus 3:3; Hebrews
7:19, 13:21; James 1:2, 8 and 9, 2:26, 3:5 and 6, 5:1; I Peter 2:11,
5:5-9.]
Verses 11 and 12:
.11You
must not slander one-another, brothers. The (person)
slandering a brother or judging his brother slanders law and judges
law; but if you judge law you
are not a doer of law but a
judge! .12There is one legislator and judge, the (One)
being able to save and to destroy. But who are you, the (person)
judging the neighbor!
You must not slander
one-another (you must not openly utter forth all kinds of statements
against each other), brothers. James again addresses the holy-people who are descendants of the 12
tribes of Israel/Jacob as his “brothers” (James 1:2, 16 and 19, 2:1, 5
and 14, 3:1, 10 and 12). Not only were those to whom he was writing all
of the Judean/Israeli background, but they were brothers in the
holy spirit category. All holy-people are
brothers in the spirit category because all of us have received the same
gift of holy spirit and we are therefore all
children of God our Father. Brothers should not slander one-another.
The person who is slandering a
brother or judging (making a decision on) his brother slanders law and
judges law (God’s law of freedom, also referred to in James 1:25 and
2:12; this is the
complete law that God by means of the Lord Jesus Christ has set-up,
divided-out and administers to be customarily and rightly used among all
holy-people; this is not referring to the old covenant law of
Moses)…
- but if you judge law (any one of you - which would be breaking God’s law)
- you are not a doer of law (you would not be a performer
of God's law making or accomplishing what it says)
- but contrary to
being a doer of law – you are behaving as a judge (one who makes the decisions, the presiding
judge) regarding God’s law!
There is one – how many? –
one (single, only one)…
- legislator (one who puts or places law into effect for/on people, who
makes and gives law)
- and judge (the same one is also the one who makes the decisions, the presiding judge),
…who is the legislator
and judge?...
- He is the One being able (God is the One Who is presently being capable,
having the able-power, the ability, the capability)…
- to save (to make safe, cause others to be safe to Himself)
- and to destroy (to utterly
ruin, to completely cause others to be lost away from Himself).
But who are you, the person judging the
neighbor (who do you think you are, you who are making a decision
regarding someone
who is near you from-among God’s people)!
[Reference: Matthew 10:28; Romans
1:30, 14:1-13; II Corinthians 12:20; Hebrews 8:6, 12:23; James 1:21-25,
2:8.]
Verses 13-17:
.13Lead
(on this) now!, the (people) saying, “Today or
tomorrow we will journey into the city here, and we will do a year
there, and we will merchandize and gain” – .14the-people-who
do not well-know the-thing of tomorrow, of-what-kind your life (will be),
for you are vapor which (is)
being brought-to-light towards a little-amount, next also being
caused-to-lack-light – .15in-the-place-of you saying,
“If-ever the Lord may intend we will both live and do this or that”;
.16but now you boast in your impositions; every boasting
of-this-kind is evil.
.17Therefore, for him having known2
to do a beautiful-thing and not doing
(it), it is sin.
Emphatically you must
lead your minds to observe what I am writing at the present time!, you
who are the people saying…
- “Today or tomorrow we will journey (pass, travel) into this city (such
and such a city, as pointing it out on a map),
- and we will do a year there (stay in that location for a year)
- and we will merchandize (perform a traveling trade, drum up business,
be
in business, trade to carry-out deals as in an emporium)
- and gain (derive
or acquire the profit, benefit or advantage)” –
…you who do not well-know the-thing of
tomorrow (you cannot
presently fix your minds upon what will happen tomorrow),
of what kind (sort) your life will be; in truth, you are in
comparison to vapor which is being brought-to-light (light is caused to
shine on you and you are presently evident, your physical life as vapor
is clearly seen) towards/for a small/short period of time, next
(secondly, next sequentially, after that) also being
caused-to-lack-light (not have light shining on you, be without light
and thereby darkened, referring to physical death) –
…instead of (in-exchange-for, in-opposition-to) you saying…
- “If-ever the Lord may intend we will both live and do this or that (if
it should happen at any time that the Lord would will with active
volition and desire regarding us and something we may do, then we will
be alive and also we will perform it)”. This should be your attitude.
But at the present time you boast (speak loudly as though it were a
justifiable claim) within the cause and sphere of action of your
impositions (your wandering about pretending to be someone or something
other-than what you truly are, the actions of an imposter).
All/every boasting (reason to boast, action of speaking loudly as though
it were a justifiable claim) of this sort is evil (actively malignant,
exercising badness).
Following-on logically, for/to the person who already knows (perceives)
to do a beautiful-thing (to make or perform that-which has a manifested
decorous, harmonious and acceptable goodness) and he is not
presently and actively doing that beautiful thing, it is sin (aberration
from God's Word, missing the mark of what God says).
[Reference: Proverbs 27:1; Luke 12:47; Acts 18:21;
Romans 1:18-21 and 30; II Timothy 3:2; Hebrews 6:3; James 1:9 and 22-24;
I John 2:16. Note: verbs with a superscript 2 (2) immediately
following them indicate the "perfect" tense - details are provided in
the "Relevant Notes" link of this study.]
