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Commentary on the Letter to St. James, Chapter 4:

James takes his exhortations to live in God’s wisdom a step further by showing what happens when we do not: war, fighting, killing, and coveting. These are all traits of friendship with the world rather than friendship with God. James reminds us that, as sinners, we must draw near to God. When we do so, He can provide for our desires, give us grace, cleanse our hands, and purify our hearts. In case we do not yet recognize our own sin, James provides examples of ways we follow the world’s path instead of God’s: judging others, boasting in our plans for profit, and avoiding doing what we know is right. Recalling the Old Testament book Ecclesiastes, James reminds us that our lives are like mist, that is, short and insubstantial. Thus, we must focus on God’s will and not our own.

The Letter of St. James, Chapter 4: 

Friendship with the World

4 What causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? 2 You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 Unfaithful creatures! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is in vain that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit which he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace; therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. 

Warning against Judging Another

11 Do not speak evil against one another, brethren. He that speaks evil against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against 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 one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you that you judge your neighbor? 

Boasting about Tomorrow

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain”; 14 whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

*Daily Lectio Divina Question:

Jesus, give me the grace to resist temptations toward pride and worldliness. Thank you for drawing near to me when I draw near to you. Lord, what can I do to humble myself and seek you first today?

Biblical Commentary provided by the Catholic Biblical School of Michigan. Join a Catholic Biblical School of Michigan class this September at Holy Family in Grand Blanc or online.

Revised Standard Version; Second Catholic Edition. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006).
Permission to use the RSV-2CE given for Bishop's Year of the Bible by Ignatius Press. Many thanks to Ignatius for this.
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