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James 4:4
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2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and1 war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.  
3 aYou ask and do not receive, bbecause you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.  
4 1Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that afriendship with the world is enmity with God? bWhoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  
5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, a“The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?  
6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
a“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”  

Humility Cures Worldliness

7 Therefore submit to God. aResist the devil and he will flee from you.  
8 aDraw near to God and He will draw near to you. bCleanse your hands, you sinners; and cpurify your hearts, you double-minded.  
9 aLament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.  
10 aHumble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.  

Do Not Judge a Brother

11 aDo not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother band judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.  
12 There is one1 Lawgiver, awho is able to save and to destroy. bWho are you to judge another?  
Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
<< James 4:3   James 4:5 >>


James 4:4

Ye adulterers and adulteresses - The Jews, because of their covenant with God, are represented as being espoused to him; and hence their idolatry, and their iniquity in general, are represented under the notion of adultery. And although they had not since the Babylonish captivity been guilty of idolatry; according to the letter; yet what is intended by idolatry, having their hearts estranged from God, and seeking their portion in this life and out of God, is that of which the Jews were then notoriously guilty. And I rather think that it is in this sense especially that St. James uses the words. "Lo! they that are far from thee shall perish; thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee." But perhaps something more than spiritual adultery is intended. See James 4:9.

The friendship of the world - The world was their god; here they committed their spiritual adultery; and they cultivated this friendship in order that they might gain this end.

The word , adulteresses, is wanting in the Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Vulgate, and one copy of the Itala.

Whosoever - will be a friend of the world - How strange it is that people professing Christianity can suppose that with a worldly spirit, worldly companions, and their lives governed by worldly maxims, they can be in the favor of God, or ever get to the kingdom of heaven! When the world gets into the Church, the Church becomes a painted sepulchre; its spiritual vitality being extinct.




Other Adam Clarke entries containing James 4:4:

Genesis 24:67

 

<< James 4:3   James 4:5 >>

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