James 4:1

James 4:1. From whence come wars and fightings among you? Other manuscripts read, Whence wars and whence fightings among you? The connection is as follows: St. James had been reproving his readers for envy and party-strife, which was the occasion of contentions among them (James 3:16); and he now proceeds to trace those mischiefs to their origin in their sinful lusts. The sudden transition from the fruit of righteousness sown by the peacemakers to the prevalence of wars and fightings, is startling. Indeed, the expressions used in this passage, wherein the readers are accused of wars and fightings, are said to kill, and are called adulterers, are so strong, that at first sight one might suppose the Epistle to be addressed to the unbelieving Jews, to whose state and character these expressions literally applied, and not to Jewish Christians, to whom they could be only figuratively applicable; but the whole spirit and structure of the Epistle prove that it was written to believers. We must make allowance for the vehement style of the writer. Besides, we are not to suppose an ideal excellence as existing in the primitive Church; we learn, especially from the two Epistles to the Corinthians, that it had its faults and blemishes; the converts carried with them into Christianity many of the vices of their unconverted state. This is the case with our modern missions; the vices which are prevalent among their unconverted countrymen are those to which the converts are most exposed and most inclined. Now a contentious spirit was a Jewish vice. Wars and fightings were at this time the condition of the Jewish nation; indeed, it was this contentious spirit that was the cause of their ruin. The Jewish Christians had not emancipated themselves from this national character. The terms ‘wars' and ‘fightings' express the bitter contentions which prevailed among them; ‘wars' denoting a state of contention generally, and ‘fightings' particular outbreaks of it. These contentions are not to be limited to disputes among teachers or to religious controversies, but are to be understood generally all those quarrels which arise from our sinful passions and selfish desires. More than eighteen centuries ago the Prince of Peace visited this earth, and the Gospel announcing ‘peace on earth' was proclaimed; and yet there are still wars and fightings in the Church and in the world.

come they not hence. James by a second question answers his first, appealing to the consciences of his readers.

even of your lusts or pleasures. Their evil desires were the occasion of their contentions; desires after worldly objects the greed of gain or influence. And such has been the cause of all the wars which have devastated this earth; these spring from the evil passions of men. ‘Nothing,' observes Plato, ‘but the body and its lusts and appetites kindle sedition, quarrels, and wars in this world.'

that war. There is no necessity to supply ‘against the mind,' or ‘against the soul.' There are different forms of this war of our lusts. There is the war between the sensual inclination and the conscience; between indwelling sin and the principle of grace in the renewed man; and between one sinful lust and another, as for example between avarice and ambition. There is the law of the members warring against the law of the mind (Romans 7:23). But it is not to these forms of war that St. James alludes; the lusts are rather considered as a combined force warring against our fellow-men; he does not speak of the state of internal war in the soul, but of active contention against others.

in your members. The lusts have their seat in our bodily members; and these members are the instruments which they use in accomplishing their purposes. Thus St. Paul says: ‘Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof; neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin' (Romans 6:12-13).