Charles Ellicott Commentary James 4:2-3

"Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend [it] in your pleasures." — James 4:2-3 (ASV)

You lust, and have not . . .—It is better this way: You desire, and have not; you kill, and envy, and cannot obtain; you fight and make war; you have not, because you ask not; you ask and receive not, because you ask that you may spend it on your lusts. It is interesting to notice the sharp, crisp sentences, remembering at the same time that St. James himself fell a victim to the passions he thus assails, probably at the hands of a zealot mob.

The marginal note to the second of the above paragraphs gives envy as an alternative reading for “kill,” but this is an error. “You kill and play the zealot” would be still nearer the original. For, as with Jedburgh justice in the old Border wars, where hanging preceded the trial, so with these factions in Jerusalem, death went first, almost before the desire to inflict it. Lust, envy, strife, and murder—like the tale of human passion in all ages, the dreadful end draws on. It is written in every national epic; its elements abound in the life of each individual: the slaughter in Etzel’s halls overshadows the first lines of the Nibelungenlied; the curse of Medea hangs like a gathering cloud around Jason and his Argonauts. Is it objected (James 4:3) that prayer is made but not answered? The reply is obvious: You ask not in the true sense; when you do ask, you receive not, because God is too loving, even in His anger.

Nevertheless, remember, He gave the Israelites their desire, and sent leanness withal into their soul (Psalms 106:15). I, said He by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 14:4), will answer him that cometh to Me, according to his idols. What greater curse could fall than an eternity of avarice to the miser, of pollution to the sensual, of murder to the violent? Many a man of quiet Christian life will thank God later on, when he knows even as he is known (1 Corinthians 13:12), that not a few of his prayers were unanswered, or at least that they were not granted in the way which he had desired.

Safety is only to be found in our Lord’s own manner of petition, Not my will, but Thine be done (Luke 22:42). Alas! In shameful contrast to this, we read of many an evil-hearted prayer offered up to the Lord our Righteousness; invocations of saints for help in unholy deeds; of angels, for acts rather befitting devils of the pit; and can hardly have the conscience to reproach the heathen for supplicating their gods in no worse a manner for no better cause.