1. The Epistle of James
Session 4: Chapter 4

2. What causes fights and quarrels among you
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
James 4:1-3

3. “I want it! Give it to me or else!”
The fights James talks abut here are not fights for truth, but for sinful desires. We can see strife among Christians when people or groups seek their own way over God’s way.
While there are a number of ways scholars have interpreted “kill” here, I think James is referring back to Jesus’ own words about “hating your brother.”
Perhaps the reason people were not asking God for their desires is that knew He would not give them. Prayerlessness could also be a symptom of their larger problem of ignoring God.
When you ask God for something just because you want it for your own pleasure, He does not promise to give it to you. This verse torpedoes the “health and wealth” gospel.

4. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud     but shows favor to the humble.”
James 4:4-6

5. Who’s your friend?
“Adulterous” here probably refers back to the OT prophets. Israel was often called “adulterous” for pursuing other gods. James is essentially stating that those pursuing their own desires are also pursuing another god-themselves.
Choosing to pursue the pleasures of the world requires a rejection of God. The word for “world” in this context refers to ungodly system of the world, not to the natural world God created.
While we often use “jealousy” with a negative connotation, you can be properly jealous for something that belongs to you. Used in conjunction with “adultery” above, there is an image of marriage between God and His people. (This is seen elsewhere in the NT with the idea of the church as the “bride of Christ.”)
Seeking your own pleasure is an indication of pride, putting yourself above all other concerns, including God.

6. Submit yourselves, then, to God
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double- minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
James 4:7-10

7. There are two imperatives here: submit and resist.
How to stop the devil
There are two imperatives here: submit and resist.
Submission to God is not a passive resignation to God’s will, but an active “drawing near” to Him in repentance and humility.
Resisting the devil also requires active effort. While we are protected by the Holy Spirit, we need to be alert and aware to the temptations that are around us and actively and openly resist them.
While the Christian life is one of joy, there is a time for mourning when we have sinned and need to repent and be forgiven. “Double- minded” refers back to chapter 1 and to James’ discussion on hypocrisy. Sin comes when we pursue our own desires, even while we are claiming to belong to Jesus.
When we do humble ourselves and repent, God will restore us to fellowship with Him.

8. Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another
Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
James 4:11-12

9. Only One Lawgiver
James brings together two lines of thought here: taming the tongue and fighting among Christians.
“Slander” is speaking against another person. There is a negative connotation to the word in Greek. By speaking in this way, we set ourselves up as the judge, the ones who determine what the law means.
James has told us to observe a person’s life to see if their faith is real. The kind of judgment in mind here is that which sets up a standard in ourselves and uses that to judge others, rather than using God’s standard.
Only God is able to truly judge the heart and make a final determination of a person’s eternal destiny.

10.  Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
James 4:13-17

11. Tomorrow may never come
These verses start to transition to the discussion in chapter 5.
This passage does not criticize planning ahead, but planning ahead without taking God into account. Some of the world-influenced Christians were apparently relying on their own planning and efforts for success, and just assumed they could go on doing so.
To say “if the Lord wills” is not setting up a mantra to be repeated every time we speak, but to reflect that the Lord is in control every time we refer to our future.
Boasting about out future is sinful, as well as foolish, because it assumes we know what lies ahead for us. We don’t even know that we have a tomorrow, so our plans may never materialize.
Verse 17 applies here in context, but it also reflects a broader truth that when we know the right thing to do yet fail to do it, it is sin. (This is often called “sin of omission.”) So it isn’t enough to try to avoid doing evil; we must also actively seek to do good.