Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary James 4:2

"Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not." — James 4:2 (ASV)

“You want something” (GK 2121) is not quite forceful enough to fit the context or to represent the Greek verb, which expresses anxious longing and eager desire. So strong is the desire that “you kill and covet.” This last statement has aroused much discussion. First, it is difficult to believe that James’s readers, whom he elsewhere addresses as Christians (2:1), were actually guilty of murder. Some, insisting that the word must be taken literally, say that James is not referring to any specific occurrences but is indicating what generally happens when people desire pleasure rather than God. This interpretation, however, does not do justice to the pointed accusation “You kill.” In the context of “wars and battles,” it seems best to take “you kill” as hyperbole for hatred (equivalent to murder in Mt 5:21–22). This also resolves the problem of seeming anticlimactic word order. To say “You hate and covet” is a much more natural order than to say “You murder and covet.” James then repeats his assertion that, with all their consuming desire and bitter antagonism, his readers were not able to obtain what they wanted, because they were going after it in the wrong way. They did “not ask God” for it. They were lusting and fighting rather than praying.