James 4:2

"You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask."You lust and do not have" -present tense, "to lust after, covet" (Thayer p. 238). Notice the words, "and do not have": "When men live merely to satisfy their desires, they never realize their goal. He who lives for the satisfaction of his pleasures and desires will always "have not". The more he gets the more unsatisfied he will be" (Roberts p. 153)."so you commit murder" -While the literal taking of life is often the result of lust (2 Samuel 2:1 and following; 2 Kings 2:2). Murder in this passage is probably being used in. figurative sense (Matthew 5:22; 1 John 3:15). Surely, the Roman government would have intervened if these Christians had been actually killing people.. powerful point is that the same selfish desires which move us to lash out at our brethren in words, are the same desires that move others to actually kill. In addition, the tense is present, the "murdering" they were doing was ongoing. Barclay notes concerning such selfish desires, "It sets men at each other's throats…..When all men are striving, each one to possess all for himself the same thing, life inevitably becomes. competitive arena. Men trample each other down in the rush to grasp the same things. Men will do anything to eliminate. rival for the thing or for the person they are on fire to possess" (p. 117). Selfish and sinful anger is going to be one of the consequences when we are bent on pleasing ourselves. When we are selfish we will develop. hatred for those who stand in the path to our goals, we will destroy the reputations of others by gossiping and so on."And you are envious" -"Envious"-"to be heated or to boil, with envy, hatred, anger" (Thayer p. 271); "to be jealous, to burn with jealousy" (Vine p. 273); "to hotly desire to possess" (Robertson p. 49). "and cannot obtain" -"yet cannot gain your end" (TCNT). Draper notes, "What. graphic picture of frustration!…..There has never been one time when Satan has ever delivered what he promised. There has never been one time when. man received satisfaction and happiness from living in rebellion against God. Not once! Be we don't believe it. Somehow we think we are the exception….There are many who think God is the super killjoy, the original wet blanket. They think he doesn't want anybody to have fun or to be happy. How wrong they are" (p. 113).

Point To Note:

Be impressed that selfishness cannot lead to happiness. Here are people who longed to possess certain things, but they could never obtain that for which they were longing. Jealousy, hatred, lust, greed and so on can never bring. person to. state of contentment, satisfaction, fulfillment and happiness (Ecclesiastes 2:11; Ecclesiastes 2:10). "so you fight and quarrel" -Both words are in the continuous tense, "go on fighting and warring". Note how selfishness and self-seeking generate. vicious cycle of misery and frustration. "We don't get happy because we try to be happy" (Draper p. 114). Some of us blame others or circumstances as being the source of our unhappiness. But the truth is that we are often frustrated because we are being selfish. Instead of compliance to the will of God as being the goal in our lives (2 Corinthians 5:9), the goal has rather become, our own personal and immediate happiness. The above verse should remind us that the heart of too many issues in the Church isn't doctrine, but rather human selfishness."You do not have because you do not ask" -What happens to our prayer-life when we are placing ourselves first? "The craving for pleasure in the end shuts the door of prayer….The true end of prayer is to say to God, 'Thy will be done'. The prayer of the man who is pleasure-dominated is: 'My desires be satisfied'" (Barclay p. 118). When we are selfish, prayer is viewed as. weak, useless and silly practice. Rather, we turn to worldly ways of getting what we want, threats, manipulation, scheming, plotting, etc..