Chapter 4
Wars Among You
1 What is the source of wars and what is the source of conflicts among you? Is it not from this — from your pleasures that wage war in your members?
2 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.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Translator’s Notes — vv. 1–3:
πόλεμοι καὶ μάχαι (polemoi kai machai) — v.1: “Wars and conflicts” — the two words form a pair: πόλεμος (polemos) refers to sustained warfare, while μάχη (machē) refers to individual battles or fights. James is not describing armed conflict between nations but the fierce internal strife within the community. The language is deliberately military: even the word “wage war” (στρατεύομαι, strateuomai, from which we get “strategy”) in v.1 is a technical military term. Paul uses the same verb in Romans 7:23 to describe sin “waging war” in his members. The source of this warfare, James says, is ἡδοναί (hēdonai, “pleasures”) — the root of the English word “hedonism.” These are not innocent pleasures but disordered desires that have become consuming drives.
φονεύετε (phoneuete) — v.2: “You murder” — this stark word has troubled interpreters. Does James literally mean murder? Some early copyists were so alarmed that a few manuscripts substitute φθονεῖτε (phthoneite, “you envy”), which is only one letter different in Greek. However, the harder reading “you murder” is almost certainly original. James may be speaking hyperbolically in the tradition of Jesus, who taught that anger toward a brother is equivalent to murder (Matthew 5:21–22). He may also be drawing on the connection between coveting and killing established in the tenth and sixth commandments and illustrated throughout the Old Testament — from Cain’s murder of Abel (Genesis 4:5–8) to Ahab’s murder of Naboth over a vineyard (1 Kings 21:1–16). Desire that cannot possess will eventually destroy.
vv.2–3: James diagnoses a cycle of frustrated desire: wanting → not having → fighting; and alongside it, a broken prayer life — either not asking God at all, or asking with corrupt motives. The community’s conflict is not a problem of resources but of hearts. Compare Jesus’s teaching on prayer in Matthew 7:7–11 (“Ask and it will be given to you”) and Matthew 6:33 (“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you”). James’s indictment is that they are seeking their own pleasures rather than God’s kingdom, and then wondering why their prayers go unanswered. The connection between proper prayer and proper desire echoes 1:5–8, where James first discussed asking God with undivided faith.
Friendship with the World
4 You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose? The spirit which he has caused to dwell in us yearns jealously.
6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Translator’s Notes — vv. 4–6:
μοιχαλίδες (moichalides) — v.4: “You adulteresses!” — the word μοιχαλίδες (moichalides) is the feminine plural of “adulteress.” Some manuscripts add “adulterers and” (μοιχοὶ καί), but the best manuscripts have only the feminine form. This is not about sexual sin but about spiritual infidelity, drawing on the deep Old Testament tradition of portraying Israel’s unfaithfulness to God as adultery. The prophets used this metaphor extensively: Hosea built his entire prophetic ministry around it (Hosea 1–3); Jeremiah called Israel a “faithless wife” (Jeremiah 3:6–10, 20); Ezekiel 16 and 23 contain extended allegories of Israel as an adulterous woman. Jesus used the same imagery, calling his generation “adulterous” (Matthew 12:39; 16:4; Mark 8:38). James stands in this prophetic line: to pursue the world’s values while claiming loyalty to God is spiritual adultery.
φιλία τοῦ κόσμου ἔχθρα τοῦ θεοῦ (philia tou kosmou echthra tou theou) — v.4: “Friendship with the world is enmity toward God” — the words φιλία (philia, “friendship, love”) and ἔχθρα (echthra, “enmity, hostility”) are placed in stark opposition. There is no neutral ground: friendship with the world-system is not merely spiritual carelessness but active hostility toward God. The word κόσμος (kosmos) here has the same negative sense as in 1:27 and 3:6 — not the created order but the organized system of values, priorities, and allegiances that stands against God. Compare 1 John 2:15–17: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Jesus stated the same principle in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters.”
v.5: This is one of the most difficult verses in James to translate, and its meaning is debated. The phrase “The spirit which he caused to dwell in us yearns jealously” could be read in several ways: (1) The human spirit that God placed within us has a tendency toward envy — a diagnosis of the human condition. (2) The Holy Spirit whom God caused to dwell in us yearns jealously for our full devotion — a description of God’s passionate, exclusive love. (3) God jealously yearns for the spirit he placed in us — God desires our undivided loyalty. The reference to a Scripture quotation (“the Scripture says”) presents an additional puzzle, as no exact Old Testament verse matches the quotation. James may be paraphrasing a general biblical theme: God’s jealous love for his people (Exodus 20:5; 34:14; Deuteronomy 4:24; Zechariah 8:2). The reading adopted here follows interpretation (2), which best fits the contrast with v.6: the Spirit yearns for us jealously, but God gives even greater grace to draw us back.
ὑπερηφάνοις ... ταπεινοῖς (hyperēphanois ... tapeinois) — v.6: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” — James quotes Proverbs 3:34 (LXX). The same proverb is quoted by Peter in 1 Peter 5:5, suggesting it was a well-known text in the early church. The word ἀντιτάσσεται (antitassetai, “opposes, sets himself in battle array against”) is a military term: God actively takes up arms against the arrogant. The ὑπερήφανος (hyperēphanos, “proud, arrogant”) is literally one who “shows himself above” others. This is the character who appears throughout the prophets as the object of God’s resistance: Isaiah 2:12 (“The Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty”); Proverbs 16:5 (“The Lord detests all the proud of heart”). Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:51–52) celebrates that God “has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts” and “brought down rulers from their thrones.” This verse becomes the hinge of the chapter, pivoting from diagnosis (vv.1–5) to remedy (vv.7–10).
Submit to God
7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Translator’s Notes — vv. 7–10:
vv.7–10: This is the most concentrated series of imperatives in the letter. In four verses James issues ten commands, rapid-fire: submit, resist, draw near, cleanse, purify, be miserable, mourn, weep, let your laughter be turned, humble yourselves. The intensity is reminiscent of the prophetic call to repentance. The passage has the character of a covenant renewal ceremony or a prophetic summons to return to God.
ὑποτάγητε ... ἀντίστητε (hypotagēte ... antistēte) — v.7: “Submit ... resist” — the two commands work together. ὑποτάσσω (hypotassō, “submit, place oneself under”) is a military term for placing oneself under a commander’s authority. ἀνθίστημι (anthistimi, “resist, stand against”) is the opposite posture. The promise that the devil will “flee” (φεύξεται, pheuxetai) is remarkable in its confidence: the devil is not an invincible adversary. When resisted from a posture of submission to God, he runs. Compare Ephesians 6:11–13, where Paul commands believers to “stand against the devil’s schemes,” and the temptation narrative, where the devil departs after Jesus resists him (Matthew 4:11; Luke 4:13).
ἐγγίσατε τῷ θεῷ καὶ ἐγγιεῖ ὑμῖν (engisate tō theō kai engiei hymin) — v.8: “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you” — this is one of the great promises in Scripture, and it echoes a deep Old Testament pattern. Zechariah 1:3: “Return to me, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you.” Malachi 3:7: “Return to me, and I will return to you.” 2 Chronicles 15:2: “The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you.” The promise is mutual but not symmetrical: God’s response exceeds our approach. We take one step; he closes the remaining distance.
καθαρίσατε χεῖρας ... ἁγνίσατε καρδίας (katharisate cheiras ... hagnisate kardias) — v.8: “Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” — the two commands move from outside to inside. “Cleansing hands” is the language of ritual purification before approaching God (Exodus 30:19–21; Psalm 24:3–4: “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart”). But James immediately moves inward: the real cleansing needed is of the heart. The word δίψυχοι (dipsychoi, “double-minded”) returns from 1:8, completing the circle. The cure for double-mindedness is not more information or better doctrine but repentance — the purification of a divided heart. Compare Isaiah 1:16: “Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight.”
v.9: “Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom” — this is the language of corporate repentance, not permanent joylessness. James is not contradicting 1:2 (“consider it nothing but joy”) but calling for the specific sorrow of repentance that must precede restoration. Compare Joel 2:12–13: “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Compare also Jesus in Luke 6:25: “Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.” Paul describes this dynamic in 2 Corinthians 7:10: “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.” The sorrow is the doorway, not the destination.
ταπεινώθητε ... ὑψώσει ὑμᾶς (tapeinōthēte ... hypsōsei hymas) — v.10: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” — this is the culmination of the ten imperatives and the promise that completes them. It directly echoes Jesus’s repeated teaching: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11; 18:14; Matthew 23:12). It also echoes the Proverbs 3:34 quotation from v.6: God gives grace to the humble. The reversal pattern — the humble exalted, the proud brought low — is one of the most consistent themes in all of Scripture, from Hannah’s prayer (1 Samuel 2:7–8) through Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:52–53) through the cross itself, where the one who humbled himself to death was exalted to the highest place (Philippians 2:8–9).
Do Not Judge One Another
11 Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.
12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge — the one who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Translator’s Notes — vv. 11–12:
μὴ καταλαλεῖτε ἀλλήλων (mē katalaleite allēlōn) — v.11: “Do not speak against one another” — the verb καταλαλέω (katalaleō) means to speak evil of someone, to slander, to tear down with words. This connects directly to the tongue material of chapter 3. James’s logic here is remarkable: to slander a brother is to set yourself above the law of love (the “royal law” of 2:8). If you judge your brother, you are implicitly declaring that the law of love does not apply to this person in this case — and in doing so, you have placed yourself above the law as its judge rather than under the law as its doer. This echoes Jesus’s teaching in Matthew 7:1–5: “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.”
v.12: “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge” — James makes a claim about divine sovereignty that echoes Isaiah 33:22: “The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.” The addition of “who is able to save and to destroy” recalls Jesus’s words in Matthew 10:28: “Fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” Only God possesses both the authority to make the law and the power to enforce it through ultimate salvation or destruction. Human judgment, by contrast, is always partial, always limited, and always in danger of usurping God’s prerogative. The rhetorical question “Who are you to judge your neighbor?” (σὺ δὲ τίς εἶ, sy de tis ei) is sharp and deflating. Compare Paul’s similar rebuke in Romans 14:4: “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant?”
Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit” —
14 you who do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, to the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Translator’s Notes — vv. 13–17:
Ἄγε νῦν (Age nyn) — v.13: “Come now” — the phrase Ἄγε νῦν (age nyn) is a sharp attention-getter, used in the diatribe style to summon a new group for rebuke. It will appear again in 5:1, addressed to the rich. Here James addresses traveling merchants — people who plan business trips with confident specificity: a particular city, a year’s stay, the expectation of profit. The scenario reflects the bustling commercial world of the eastern Mediterranean in the first century, where Jewish merchants traveled extensively. James does not condemn commerce itself but the presumption behind it — the assumption that one controls the future.
ἀτμίς ... εἶτα καὶ ἀφανιζομένη (atmis ... eita kai aphanizomenē) — v.14: “A mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” — the word ἀτμίς (atmis) means “vapor, mist, steam” — something visible for a moment, then gone. This is the same imagery used in the Old Testament for the brevity of life: Job 7:7 (“Remember that my life is but a breath”); Psalm 39:5–6 (“Each person’s life is but a breath ... a mere phantom”); Psalm 102:3 (“My days vanish like smoke”); Wisdom of Solomon 2:4 (“Our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud”). James’s point echoes the flower-and-grass imagery of 1:10–11 (drawn from Isaiah 40:6–8): human life is breathtakingly brief, and any planning that ignores this reality is arrogant self-deception.
ἐὰν ὁ κύριος θελήσῃ (ean ho kyrios thelēsē) — v.15: “If the Lord wills” — this phrase, known in Latin as Deo volente (D.V.), has deep roots in both Jewish and pagan piety. Jews would say “If God wills” (cf. Acts 18:21, where Paul says, “I will return to you, if God wills”; 1 Corinthians 4:19; 16:7; Hebrews 6:3). Greek and Roman writers had parallel phrases: Plato and Epictetus both acknowledge the gods’ sovereignty over human plans. In Arabic, the equivalent is Inshallah (“If God wills”), still ubiquitous in the Islamic world today. James is not commanding a verbal formula but a posture of the heart: all human planning should be held with open hands, acknowledging that God alone determines whether we will live to see tomorrow, let alone profit from it.
vv.13–15: While the language of this passage is explicitly commercial (ἐμπορευσόμεθα καὶ κερδήσομεν, “we will engage in business and make a profit”), the principle James articulates would have had a wider resonance in the Jerusalem church of the 40s AD. This was a community rapidly becoming a launching pad for expansion. People were going out — some scattered by persecution (Acts 8:1–4), some deliberately sent (Acts 11:22), some traveling on their own initiative. In the first-century Jewish world, the line between a business trip and a ministry trip was often blurry: Paul was a tentmaker who traveled commercial routes, and many early believers were merchants whose trade networks were their missionary pathways, carrying the gospel along the same roads they carried their goods. James, as the leader of the Jerusalem church, would have been watching people make plans — some genuinely Spirit-led, some commercially motivated, some a murky mixture of both. The book of Acts provides vivid examples of the contrast James is drawing. The Spirit-directed model appears in Acts 13:1–3, where the church at Antioch fasts and prays and the Holy Spirit initiates the mission: “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” In Acts 16:6–10, Paul and his companions are forbidden by the Holy Spirit from speaking in Asia, prevented from entering Bithynia, and redirected to Macedonia through a vision — a dramatic picture of human plans being overruled by divine direction. These are models of plans held with open hands, submitted to God’s sovereignty. The self-directed model James describes in 4:13 is the opposite: destination picked, timeline set, profit calculated, God unconsulted. It is worth noting that when the Jerusalem Council itself sent its letter to the Gentile churches, it began: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28) — the Spirit first, then us. That phrasing is precisely the posture James calls for in v.15.
v.16: “You boast in your arrogance” — the word ἀλαζονεία (alazoneia) describes the pretension of claiming more than one has or can control. The ἀλαζών (alazōn, “braggart”) was a stock character in Greek comedy — the person who inflated his own importance. In 1 John 2:16, the “pride of life” (ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου) is listed as one of the marks of worldliness. James classifies all such boasting as πονηρά (ponēra, “evil”) — not merely foolish or unwise but morally corrupt, because it implicitly denies God’s sovereignty.
v.17: “To the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin” — this verse functions as a summary statement for the entire letter and as a bridge to chapter 5. It defines sin not only as active wrongdoing but as passive failure — knowing the good and refusing to act on it. This is what Christian theology calls “sins of omission.” Jesus taught this principle in Luke 12:47: “That servant who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act according to his will shall receive a severe beating.” The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30–37) is built on the same foundation: the sin of the priest and the Levite was not that they harmed the wounded man but that they walked past him. This verse ties together the major themes of James: faith must produce action (2:14–26), hearing must be completed by doing (1:22–25), and the knowledge of good creates an obligation to do it.
General Notes on the Chapter
James 4 is the most confrontational chapter in the letter. Its tone shifts from pastoral teaching to prophetic rebuke. The language is sharp, the imperatives are relentless, and the imagery is drawn from warfare, adultery, and mourning. Yet the structure moves purposefully from diagnosis to remedy to hope. Verses 1–5 diagnose the disease: disordered desires, broken prayer, and spiritual adultery. Verse 6 provides the theological hinge: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Verses 7–10 prescribe the cure in ten rapid-fire commands, culminating in the promise of exaltation. Verses 11–12 address the specific sin of judgmental speech, and vv.13–17 address the presumption of those who plan without acknowledging God. The chapter moves from the battlefield of desires to the throne of grace, calling readers to the one posture that unlocks everything: humility.
The ten imperatives of vv.7–10 deserve special attention. They follow a deliberate sequence: first, a posture toward God (submit) and toward evil (resist); then a movement toward God (draw near) paired with a moral cleansing (cleanse hands, purify hearts); then the emotional reality of repentance (be miserable, mourn, weep, let laughter turn to mourning); and finally the comprehensive posture that encompasses all the others (humble yourselves). This is not a checklist but a narrative of repentance: the soul turns from the enemy, moves toward God, confronts its own corruption, grieves over it, and surrenders. The promise at the end is not earned by this sequence but released by it: God exalts those who have stopped trying to exalt themselves.
The phrase “friendship with the world” (v.4) must be understood carefully. James is not advocating withdrawal from society or hatred of the created order. God’s creation is good (1:17–18), and James himself calls believers to engage practically with the world’s suffering (1:27; 2:15–16). What James opposes is the adoption of the world’s value system — its priorities of wealth, status, power, and self-promotion — as one’s operative allegiance. It is the difference between living in the world and belonging to it. Jesus prayed the same distinction in John 17:15–16: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”
Verse 17 — “to the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin” — is sometimes read as a disconnected aphorism tacked onto the end of the chapter. But it is in fact a precise summary of everything James has argued. The merchants of vv.13–16 know they should acknowledge God’s sovereignty; they do not. The slanderers of vv.11–12 know they should love their neighbor; they do not. The warring community of vv.1–3 knows it should seek God’s will in prayer; it does not. Throughout the letter, James’s concern has never been ignorance but disobedience — the gap between knowing and doing, between hearing and acting, between professing faith and living it. This verse names that gap for what it is: sin.