¹Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

²You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

What are the gray areas where we are unsure about whether it is right to ask God for something or not?

Where it is not clear whether something is a material need or a "want". Where we feel unqualified to ask

for a spiritual blessing. We need to ask in accordance with God's will. The book says to learn to love

Prayers may not be answered where they involve selfish manipulation of people, or where we are acting out of revenge: "Vengeance is mine , says The Lord"

4:2 “Murder” here is probably to be understood metaphorically and not literally, according to the context. However, in 5:6, James is apparently condemning wealthy unbelieving Jewish landowners who had actually murdered just and nonresistant workers. Context is the key in both interpretations

³You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. ⁴Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

4:4 “Adulterers and adulteresses” is a strong metaphor for those who have been spiritually unfaithful to God and who have engaged in an affair with the “world” (that evil organized system under the rule of the devil which opposes God and His will). This unfaithfulness results in: (1) experiencing hostility from God and (2) becoming God’s enemy.

Do we always know when we are compromising with the world?Do we use the world's methods in the church, rather than God's?

⁵Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

4:5 The precise O.T. text James has in mind is unclear, as is the correct translation. NKJV translators understand “the Spirit” to be the Holy Spirit and not the human spirit (contra KJV). This judgment is probably correct, and it should be noted that if this is the proper translation/interpretation, it is the only reference to the Holy Spirit in this epistle. The verse then is best understood as saying that the Holy Spirit, who indwells believers, intensely desires their loyalty, love, and faithfulness. As for the O.T. text James is citing, there are two possibilities: (1) he has in mind a text like Ex. 20:5,(also 34.14, deut 4.24- jealous husband)

or (2) he has no particular scripture in view, so that rather this verse conveys a theme concerning God and His people which runs throughout the O.T.

⁸Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁹Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

4:7–10 These verses contain 10 of the 54 imperatives in James. Combining straightforward and picturesque terms, James beautifully describes the characteristics of genuine repentance. They are these: (1) submission to God, (2) resistance of the devil, (3) drawing near to God, (4) cleansing of hands, (5) purifying the heart, (6) lamentation, (7) mourning, (8) weeping, (9) turning, (10) humbling oneself in the sight of the Lord. The beautiful conclusion to this repentance is the divine raising up that comes from God and not ourselves.¹

James has to lay it on with a trowel to make this point. Christians then, as now , so easily fall into the trap of judgementalism.

Think back to the study on the tongue. How can a proper attitude to God prevent us from criticizing others?

¹¹Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

¹²There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?

Which of the two attitudes : Planning, or pessimism , do you subscribe to naturally?

¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;

¹⁴whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

¹⁵Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

We were all shocked at the death of Princess Margaret. We didn't think about it in Jubilee year. All the plans could be thrown into disarray if there is any more royal mourning. Not too sure if this is a good example of what James means by life being a "mist"

Does the idea of "mist" actually change your answer to the question about how you see the future?

¹⁷Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

How does verse 17 sum up this chapter. (Outward actions show inward attitude= or the outworking of our inward attitude is shown in our actions)

Is it always obvious when God wants us to do good? Why do we find this, and the practice of humility difficult?

1W.A. Criswell, Believer’s study Bible [computer file], electronic ed. , Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, c1991 by the Criswell Center for Biblical Studies.