James 4:1-17
1 From whence come wars and fightingsa 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.b
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.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
The writer now dealt with the effect of faith on character. Everything depends on desire. To attempt to satisfy a natural desire without reference to God is futile, and issues in internal conflict and outward warfare and strife. The writer inquired, "Doth the Spirit which He made to dwell in us long unto envying?" It is self-evident that the Spirit of God does not create desire which issues in envying.
The divine corrective of such a condition is, first, that God "giveth more grace... to the humble." In the infinite grace of God there is ample supply to counteract all the forces of evil. The responsibility is revealed in a series of injunctions. With regard to Satan, first must be submission to God, and then resistance. It is not enough, however, to draw nigh to God and then to be careless in conduct. "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh unto you." In the sense of the resulting nearness it is possible to cleanse the hands, that is, to correct the conduct; and to purify the heart, that is, to make right the character.
Such attitudes of life will result, first, in right relationship with man. Living faith in God ever creates in the heart of man the consciousness that his judgment of another may be partial and mistaken, but only God knows the deepest facts. Therefore faith in God means a dependence on Him that is actual and active. It is in connection with this argument that the principle is laid down that "to him therefore that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." The reference is to the saying, "If the Lord will." Thus it is shown that the neglect of any right habit, even in speech, is of the nature of sin.