James Chapter 4 — Commentary on Verse 2

    Youwantsomethingbutdon’tgetit.Youkillandcovet,butyoucannothavewhatyouwant.You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.

    In the context the apostle is applying himself to the cure of worldly desires. He has mentioned one effect in verse 1: inward and outward trouble, both in the world and within ourselves. He now comes to another argument: the dissatisfaction of those efforts that come from worldly desires. They distract the head with cares and engage the heart in sins, and all to no purpose.

    Youwantsomething. Usually this word is taken in a bad sense, to mean inordinate and passionate desires; hence the [KJV] translation lust.

    Butdon’tgetit. This may be taken two ways: either “you never obtained,” or “you have now lost.” Trying to get things by wrong ways seldom succeeds; or if it does, possession is soon lost.

    Youkill. Covetousness is as bad as murder—“Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives of those who get it” (Proverbs 1:19).

    Andcovet. “You emulate” or “you are given to envy.” This word is sometimes taken in a good sense: “eagerly desire spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 14:1). It is good when we try to imitate those who excel in virtue or to go beyond them. But there is also a worldly emulation, which has chiefly to do with external enjoyment and is a sign of being upset that anyone should enjoy any external goodness equal to or better than ours and a strong covetous desire to appropriate that goodness for ourselves. In the first case there is malice, in the second covetousness; we take the word here to mean chiefly the latter.

    Butyoucannothavewhatyouwant. “You cannot arrive at happiness”; that is, either at the happiness of the people you emulate or at the happiness you fancy. The language of desire is give, give, give; it is an appetite without bound or measure. Given one world, we are not happy but want another. Worldly people possess much but have nothing.

    Youquarrelandfight.Youdonothave. That is, though their worldly desires had broken out so far as public rioting, still they were at a loss.

    BecauseyoudonotaskGod. That is, you do not use the lawful means of prayer. But how can it be said you do not ask since in the next verse he says, When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives?

    (1)      Possibly he is taking to task one abuse here, another there—here, that they hoped to help themselves by their own efforts without prayer; and there, that their prayers were conceived for worldly ends.

    (2)      Because prayers not conceived in a humble way are not prayers; the prayers of worldly desire are not prayers.

    Notes on Verse 2

    Note1. Worldly desires are usually disappointed: Youwantsomethingbutdon’tgetit. God loves to deny desires when they are inordinate. Sometimes this is out of mercy. It is a blessing to be disappointed in the ways of sin; you cannot have a worse judgment than to have your worldly desires fulfilled. How unhappy people are when God leaves them to themselves without restraint! “The faithless will be fully repaid for their ways, and the good man rewarded for his” (Proverbs 14:14). The cursed apostate will have enough honors and pleasures. To check our desires, God in mercy fences our way with thorns (see Hosea 2:6). The blood heated by intemperance and the heart enlarged by desire are both sins that bring with them their own punishment, especially when they are disappointed. Amnon and Ahab were both sick, one with desire, the other with covetousness.

    Application1. When the heart is too much set on anything, it is the sure way to miss it. The fool talked of bigger barns, and that night his soul was taken away. Affections should rise according to the worth of the object: “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:27). Your hard-working desires would suit a better object. Your strength should be spent on everlasting bread; that is, work without sin and without disappointment.

    Application 2. Do not always be troubled when you cannot have what you want; you have reason to bless God. It is a mercy when worldly desires are disappointed. Say, with David, “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me” (1 Samuel 25:32). Your hearts have been set on great things, and you thought, like the fool in the Gospel, that you would enlarge your barns and exalt your nest; and suddenly God came in and blasted all those worldly projects. Praise God for such providence. How complacent or sensual or worldly your spirit would have been! It was a mercy that the world was crucified to Paul, as well as Paul crucified to the world (Galatians 6:14).

    Application3. This teaches you what reflections to make upon yourselves in case of disappointment. When you miss any worldly thing that you have desired, say, “Have I not desired this? Did I not covet it too earnestly?” Absalom was the greater curse to David because David loved him too much. Inordinate longings make the affections miscarry. See how things that have too much of self seldom prove happy. We often find that people with much to worry about are unsuccessful; they turn this way and that and remain in the same place like a door on its hinges: “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat” (Psalm 127:2). Success in human endeavors lies in God’s blessing; it is a prerogative he has reserved to himself. Providence sometimes weans us from worldly desire and brings us to grace and shows us that a blessing is sooner gained by faith than by worldly care.

    Note2. Where there is covetousness, there is usually fighting, envy, and coveting. As graces go hand in hand, so also there is a link between sins; they seldom go alone. If someone is a drunkard, he will be wanton; if he is covetous, he will be envious. Christ cast seven devils out of Mary Magdalene, and another man was possessed by a legion. When the heart is brought under the power of any sin, it is equally at risk from all sin. Covetousness may be known by its companions—fighting and envy: “filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity” (Romans 1:29). Self-love is the root of all three; it makes us covet and desire what is good and excellent, and it makes us envy others for enjoying it, and then to break all bonds of duty and love so that we may snatch it from them.

    Note3. Youkillandcovet.…Youquarrelandfight. It is desire and covetousness that is most apt to trouble neighborhoods. Solomon says, “A greedy man brings trouble to his family” (Proverbs 15:27); we may add, indeed, to all the homes near him. Covetousness is a base affection that will set you on the most unworthy practices. Those who are given to it trouble their families by exacting all their labors, and they trouble human societies by unjust arguments; they quarrel with those who possess what they covet. Ahab spilt Naboth’s blood for the sake of his vineyard. Such persons work for social change so that they may feather their nests with the common spoils. Besides all this, they bring down God’s judgment on their people; Achan’s covetousness troubled the whole of Israel (Joshua 7). This is especially so if they are in high positions—as when magistrates build their own houses upon the ruins of other people’s and obtain large revenues and estates with the public purse or by making poor people work for them; see Jeremiah 22:13.

    Well, then, it is no wonder that covetous people meet with public hatred and detestation. They hurt not only God but human society; they are the sort of people who are moved neither by arguments of nature nor by those of grace. They neither fear God nor men (Luke 18:2). God has laid these two restraints on us—fear of himself to preserve religion, and the shame of the world to preserve human society. Some people are moved by neither. This was what the Jews were like: “They displease God and are hostile to all men” (1 Thessalonians 2:15); they agreed with nobody but themselves. Similarly, 2 Thessalonians 3:2 speaks of “wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith”; nor does everyone have grace, good nature, or reason. Lactantius says of Lucian, “he spared neither God nor man.” Covetousness makes people have this sort of sour disposition. Toward God it is idolatry; it is the bane of human society.

    Note4. Worldly desire will set people not only on dishonest endeavors but on unlawful means to accomplish their ends—killing and fighting and so on. Bad means go with base ends; they resolve to have it, and any means will serve to satisfy their thirst: “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap” (1 Timothy 6:9); “one eager to get rich will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 28:20). If God will not enrich them, Satan will; and what they cannot get by honest labor, they make up by deceit and theft. That shows what a tyrant worldly desire is; if God does not bless us, it makes us go to the devil. And again, desire that makes you use dishonest means is rank desire.

    Note5. Whatever the wicked do, when God is against them their efforts are frustrated; whatever they try, they are disappointed: “he thwarts the purposes of the peoples” (Psalm 33:10). God will not let his creatures be too hard for him in all battles; he will overcome and have the best of it (Romans 3:4). But when does God set himself to frustrate the efforts of the creature? It is when the creature sets himself to frustrate God’s counsels and plans. This may be done in several ways:

    (1)      When we want to do things in spite of providence. People are disappointed in some evil way once or twice, and yet they insist on trying again, as if they want to beat God. For example, the king of Israel risked the other fifty after two fifties were destroyed (2 Kings 1); Pharaoh hardened his heart after many plagues; Balaam beat his ass three times (Numbers 22:23-27), and after that built altar after altar to curse Israel.

    (2)      When people seek by worldly policies to avoid God’s threats or promises. God had said, “I will cut off Ahab’s posterity.” To avoid this Ahab started to father children; he had seventy children, brought up in seventy strong cities, and yet all were beheaded by Jehu. Herod killed all the children of Bethlehem so that he might make sure of killing Christ, and some say he killed his own child who was being nursed there. About this Augustus said, “it is better to be Herod’s swine than his son.” Yet Christ was kept safe: “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD” (Proverbs 21:30). He uses many words to show that the choicest abilities will not be able to win the contest against providence.

    (3)      When people crossed by providence seek happiness elsewhere by unlawful means, such as violence, extortion, or deceit—as if Satan would make them more prosperous than God would. See if these people’s situation does not deteriorate and their families, whose state they try to improve in this way, become ruined. In ancient times they built a tower, as if there were more security in a tower than a promise (Genesis 11:4). There are many devices in the human heart for bringing about their ends, but they are all marked with the curse of providence.

    (4)      When you say “I will” without God’s permission: see Exodus 15:9 and 4:3. Confident intentions and presumptions that are not subjected to God’s pleasure seldom prosper.

    (5)      By repeated efforts against the church: see Isaiah 8:9-10. They are still “shattered,” even though they combine force with ingenuity and get together in most unholy leagues and renew their assaults with united strength; that is why the prophet so often repeats, “and be shattered.”

    Note6. Becauseyoudonotask. That is, you do not ask God’s permission in humble and holy prayer. It is not good to engage in any undertaking without prayer. In prayer you ask God’s permission and show that your action is not a contest with him. The families that do not call on God’s name must be cursed; in their actions they say, in effect, that they will be happy without God. From this we learn that:

    (1)      It is a false argument against prayer to say that God knows our requests already, and that God’s decrees are immutable and cannot be altered by our prayers. That was the argument of the old heathen philosopher Maximus Tyrus and of many Libertines in more recent times. But prayer is not for God’s information but the creature’s submission; we pray in order that we may have his permission. And again, God’s decrees do not exclude the duty of creatures and the work of secondary causes: “I will yield to the plea of the house of Israel” (Ezekiel 36:37). “‘I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you.… Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you’” (Jeremiah 29:11-12).

    (2)      No actions must be taken in hand except those we can commend to God in prayer. Any actions that we are ashamed to ask a blessing on must not be pursued; we must not engage in any enterprises that we dare not communicate to God in our supplications: “Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD” (Isaiah 29:15)—that is, who plan their enterprises and never ask what God’s will is or communicate their purpose to him in prayer.