James 4:4

Ye adulterers and adulteresses The better MSS. give ye adulteresses only. The use of the feminine alone in this connexion, where the persons referred to are primarily men, is at first startling. It has a partial parallel in our Lord's words "an evil and adulterous generation" (Matthew 12:39), but it finds its best explanation in the thought, not without its bearing on what follows, that the soul's unfaithfulness towards God is like that of a wife towards her husband. It is as though St James said "Ye adulterous souls." There is, it may be, in the use of such a term, a touch of indignant scorn not unlike that in Homer, Ἀ χαιΐδες, ο ὐ κετ ' Ἀ χαιοί. "Women, not men of Achæa" (Il.ii. 235), or Virgil's "O vere Phrygiæ, neque enim Phryges" (Æn. ix. 617). In this subserviency to pleasures, St James sees that which, though united with crimes of violence, is yet essentially effeminate.

the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Once more we have a distinct echo from the Sermon of the Mount (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13). Here, also, as in chap. James 1:8, stress is laid on the fact that the neutrality of a divided allegiance is impossible. In that warfare, therefore, we must choose our side. We take it, even if we think that we do not choose it.

whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world Literally, Whosoever wishes to be a friend. The inference is not a mere repetition, but lays stress on the fact that the mere wish and inclination to be on one side involves, ipso facto, antagonism to the other.