Wesley's Explanatory Notes
James 4:3
But if ye do ask, ye receive not, because ye ask amiss — That is, from a wrong motive.
But if ye do ask, ye receive not, because ye ask amiss — That is, from a wrong motive.
Verse James 4:3. _YE ASK, AND RECEIVE NOT_] Some think that this refers to their prayers for the conversion of the heathen; and on the pretence that they were not converted thus; they thought it lawfu...
YE ASK, AND RECEIVE NOT - That is, some of you ask, or you ask on some occasions. Though seeking in general what you desire by strife, and without regard to the rights of others, yet you sometimes pra...
IV. FURTHER EXHORTATIONS TO RIGHT LIVING CHAPTER 4 _ 1. Fightings and worldliness rebuked (James 4:1)_ 2. The Godly walk (James 4:7) James 4:1 A strong rebuke follows the statements concerning the...
The climax of the last paragraph leads to a diagnosis of the disease that poisoned quarrelsome Jewish communities. Faction fights were the logical outcome of unbridled passions; they campaign against...
Whence come feuds and whence come fights among you? Is this not their source--do they not arise because of these desires for pleasures which carry on their constant warring campaign within your member...
MAN'S PLEASURE OR GOD'S WILL? (James 4:1-3)...
AMISS. with evil intent. Greek. _kakos_. Compare App-128. THAT. in order that. Greek. _hina_. CONSUME. spend. See Luke 15:14. UPON. in (gratifying). App-104....
_Ye ask, and receive not_ The words are obviously written as in answer to an implied objection: "Not ask," a man might say; "come and listen to our prayers; no one can accuse us of neglecting our devo...
ΑἸΤΕΙ͂ΤΕ … ΑἸΤΕΙ͂ΣΘΕ. The active and middle seem to be used indiscriminately as in the case of some other verbs, as ἀκούω and ἀκούομαι, ἰδεῖν and ἰδέσθαι, φλέγειν and φλέγεσθαι. Clyde, § 31 d. Comp. a...
CH. 4:1–12. THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE DESIRES OF THE FLESH WHICH ARE THE CAUSE OF EVIL CONTENTION...
_DO NOT BE FILLED WITH PRIDE -- JAMES 4:1-5 :_ Here James deals with the source or origin of altercations among brethren. He listed as causes of these wars and fightings: (1) a lust after worldly thin...
ΑΙΤΕΊΤΕ _praes. ind. act. от_ ΑΊΤΈΩ (G154) просить; _med._ = "просить для себя" ΛΑΜΒΆΝΕΤΕ _praes. ind. act. от_ ΛΑΜΒΆΝΩ (G2983) получать.ΚΑΚΏΣ (G2560) _adv._ зло, неправильно. ΑΊΤΕΪ́ΣΘΕ _praes. ind...
SELFISH PLEASURE A SOURCE OF TROUBLE _Text 4:1-3_ James 4:1 Whence come wars, and whence come fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members? James 4:12....
CHAPTER VIII _CAUSE AND REMEDY OF STRIFE_ James 4:1-12 _Introduction_ Can it be possible that the church of Jesus Christ could descend to the sins mentioned here so soon after Pentecost? In less th...
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Some are supposed to object, But we do "ask" (cf. ). James replies, It is not enough to ask for good things, b...
VERSE 3 YE ASK, AND RECEIVE NOT, BECAUSE YE ASK AMISS. Even when you did ask you did not receive, because you asked that you might be enabled thereby to carry out a wicked purpose. Hence your asking...
20 The case of Abraham is most helpful in further defining the distinct viewpoints of Paul and James. The former refers us to the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, the latter to the twenty-second. In the...
DENUNCIATION OF GREED AND LOVE OF PLEASURE 1. Lusts] better, 'pleasures.'...
WHAT *FAITH SHOULD DO JAMES _IAN MACKERVOY_ The word list at the end explains words with a *star by them. CHAPTER 4 DESIRES AND DIVISIONS 4:1-10 V1 You know where all the fights and quarrels...
YE LUST, AND HAVE NOT... — Better thus: _Ye desire, and have not; ye kill, and envy, and cannot obtain; ye fight and make war; ye have not, because ye ask not; ye ask and receive not, because ye ask t...
CHAPTER 18 ST. JAMES AND PLATO ON LUSTS AS THE CAUSES OF STRIFE; THEIR EFFECT ON PRAYER. James 4:1 THE change from the close of the third chapter to the beginning of the fourth is startling. St. Jam...
αἰτεῖτε … αἰτεῖσθε : There does not seem to be any difference in meaning between the active and middle here: “If the middle is really the stronger word, we can understand its being brought in just whe...
ἐπιθυμεῖτε καὶ οὐκ ἔχετε …: It must be confessed that these verses are very difficult to understand; we have, on the one hand, lusting and coveting, murdering and fighting; and, on the other hand, pra...
“DRAW NIGH TO GOD” James 4:1 The Apostle returns to “the jealousy and faction” of the previous chapter, James 3:14, and says that these evils are traceable to _lust_, that is, to inordinate desire. T...
The writer now dealt with the effect of faith on character. Everything depends on desire. To attempt to satisfy a natural desire without reference to God is futile, and issues in internal conflict and...
SEEKING TO PLEASE SELF"Lust" is a strong desire for a thing. Certainly, it has caused others to do wicked things. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband, Uriah, killed to satisfy...
From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? (2) Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and...
To the reader who enters on the consideration of the epistle of James from the epistles of Paul, the change is great and sudden, and by no means least of all from the epistle to the Hebrews, which, in...
3_Ye seek and receive not_. He goes farther: though they sought, yet they were deservedly denied; because they wished to make God the minister of their own lusts. For they set no bounds to their wishe...
In all that follows we have still the judgment of unbridled nature, of will in its different forms: contentions that arise from the lusts of the natural heart; request made to God proceeding from the...
YE ASK, AND RECEIVE NOT,.... Some there were that did ask of God the blessings of his goodness and providence, and yet these were not bestowed on them; the reason was, BECAUSE YE ASK AMISS; not in th...
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume _it_ upon your lusts. Ver. 3. _Ye ask and receive not_] Ye ask and miss, because ye ask amiss. It is the manner that makes or mars a...
_Ye lust_ Επιθυμειτε, _ye covet_, or eagerly desire; _and have not_ What you desire; you are, some way or other, hindered from attaining that of which you are so greedy; _ye kill_ In your heart; _for...
RECEIVE NOT; because you do not ask of God with a right spirit, or for the right end. You seek to gratify yourselves; whereas you should seek to glorify God and do good to men....
CAUTION AGAINST WORLDLY-MINDEDNESS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. Against a lustful, quarrelsome disposition:...
YE ASK, AND RECEIVE NOT, BECAUSE YE ASK AMISS, THAT YE MAY CONSUME IT UPON YOUR LUSTS....
This chapter, to the end of v.6, continues the subject begun in Ch.3:13. Sensual. devilish wisdom was accompanied by wars and fightings: but this proceeded from the lusts of the flesh active within th...
What are some ways that God responds to our prayers? Does God say “NO” in response to some of our requests? Are there times that God answers our prayers in ways we did not expect or anticipate? Are th...
LUSTS: Or, pleasures...
"You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures."You ask and do not receive" -"Some of us might say, 'Now wait. minute.. asked God for somet...
1-10 Since all wars and fightings come from the corruptions of our own hearts, it is right to mortify those lusts that war in the members. Wordly and fleshly lusts are distempers, which will not allo...
YE ASK; he prevents an objection; q.d. Admit you do pray for the good things you want, or, though you pray for them. YE ASK AMISS; though you pray for good things, yet you do not pray well, or in a ri...
James 4:3 ask G154 (G5719) and G2532 not G3756 receive G2983 (G5719) because G1360 ask G154 ...
IN CONTRAST TO THOSE WHO HAVE RECEIVED THE WISDOM THAT IS FROM ABOVE ARE THOSE WHO YIELD TO THE DESIRES OF THE FLESH AND SEEK TO BE FRIENDS OF A WORLD WHICH IGNORES CHRIST (JAMES 4:1). Having spoken o...
‘You ask, and do not receive, because you ask for the wrong reasons, that you may spend (dissipate) it in your pleasures.' And even when they do sometimes ask God for it they still do not receive sati...
James 4:1-12. St. James warns his readers against those evil passions which gave rise to wars and fightings among them. They must moderate their desires, and guard against self-gratification. If they...
James 4:3. YE ASK, AND RECEIVE NOT: as if to anticipate the reply of his readers that they did ask, but still did not receive the object of their desires. BECAUSE YE ASK AMISS: or wrongly, wickedly;...
BECAUSE YE ASK AMISS (διοτ κακως αιτεισθε). Here the indirect middle does make sense, "ye ask for yourselves" and that is "evilly" or amiss (κακως), as James explains.THAT YE MAY SPEND IT IN YOUR P...
James 4:1. _From whence come wars and fightings among you?_ Whether between nations, or parties or individuals,-if there be wars and fightings, whence do they come? James 4:1. _Come they not hence,...
CONTENTS: Rebuke of worldliness and exhortation to humility before God. CHARACTERS: God, Satan. CONCLUSION: Worldly and fleshly lusts are the distemper which will not allow contentment or satisfacti...
James 4:1. _From whence come wars and fightings among you?_ St. James saw in the Spirit the bloody and cruel wars which would rise among christian powers, much the same as among the heathen. He had a...
BECAUSE YOUR MOTIVES ARE BAD. "Even when you do ask God for success, you do not receive it, because you ask God to bless your wicked and unspiritual efforts, rather than changing your methods to match...
_From whence come wars and fightings?_ WARS AND FIGHTING--WHENCE THEY PROCEED I. THE QUESTION PROPOSED (James 4:1). We have no very particular information as to the nature of these contests, the part...
JAMES—NOTE ON JAMES 4:3 YOU ASK WRONGLY. They focus on satisfying self-centered PASSIONS rather than honoring God and advancing his kingdom purposes....
THE LOWER AND THE HIGHER LIFE _CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES_ James 4:1. LUSTS.—Pleasures, but viewed on their evil side. _Desires_ that are ill regulated. Compare 1 Peter 2:11; Romans 7:23. Evidentl...
EXPOSITION JAMES 4:1 REBUKE OF QUARRELS ARISING FROM PRIDE AND GREED. A terribly sadden transition from the "peace" with which James 3:1. closed....
This chapter could be entitled how to win friends and influence people. Guard your tongue, bring your tongue under control, use it for good, use it to encourage to build up, don't use it to tear down,...
1 John 3:22; 1 John 5:14; Isaiah 1:15; Isaiah 1:16; James 4:1;...
Ye ask [α ι τ ε ι τ ε]. See on hjrwtwn, besought, Matthew 14:23. Amiss [κ α κ ω ς]. Lit., evilly : with evil intent, as explained by the following sentence. Consume it upon [δ α π α ν η σ η τ ε ε ν]....