1.
From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Verse 1
Lusts; inordinate and covetous desires.
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.
Verse 2
Because ye ask not; that is, of God. The meaning is, that they do not obtain the happiness which they desire, because they seek to effect their ends by contention and violence, instead of relying upon the providence and goodness of God.
3.
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
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.
Verse 4
Ye adulterers and adulteresses. These terms seem to be used in this case, as indeed they often are in the Scriptures, in a figurative sense, to denote those who are not true to the worship and service of God, but, while they profess to love and serve their Maker, have their hearts really set upon the world.
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.
Verse 7
Resist the devil; the temptations and excitements to sin, represented as offered by Satan.
8.
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Verse 8
Your hands; your conduct.--Ye double-minded; ye who hesitate, undecided, between God and the world.
9.
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Verse 9
Be afflicted, &c.; that is, in penitence for sin.
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.
Verse 11
Speaketh evil of the law and judgeth the law; violates the law, and assumes the office of judge under it. The sacred writers often use the same terms in a modified sense in the second clause of a sentence which had been used appropriately and naturally in the first, in order to preserve a sort of parallelism or symmetry of expression. Thus the phrases speaketh evil of, and judgeth, are repeated in the second clause, in this case, although used in a modified sense.
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.
Verse 15
Ye ought to say, &c.; that is, they ought habitually to feel their dependence upon God. The direction refers to the proper sentiment to be felt in the heart, and not particularly to the expression of it in language.
16.
But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
Verse 16
Rejoice in your boastings; feel confident in your own powers.
17.
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Verse 17
The meaning is, that now, after receiving the plain instructions which James had given above, if any still persisted in the sin which he had condemned, they would be doubly guilty.