Ye lust and have not ye kill and are full of envy, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war; ye have not because ye ask not.
Behind every quarrel James finds a deeper cause: a desire inside a person that nothing satisfies and nothing stops. The verse traces a chain — wanting, killing, coveting, fighting — and ends with a quiet charge: they never asked God for anything.
James is not describing wars between nations. The trouble is among the people he writes to, and even the words for it come from a world that does not know God.
These violent workings sprang from self unjudged. When they are deliberate and ongoing, we call them "wars." When they are passing outbreaks, we call them "fightings" or "battles." But they describe violence not out in the world, but among the people he addresses. The humbling fact remains: the words we use for them come from the uncontrolled ways of men who did not know God.
The trouble is not a shortage of resources but the appetite itself, working through the body's own members without any restraint from the will or fear of God.
The members of the body in this case play their part, unchecked by the will or fear of God: the throat, an open grave; the tongue, deceitful; the lips, with poison underneath; the mouth, full of bitterness; the eyes, full of adultery; the hands, ready for robbery; the heart, prone to covetousness; the feet, swift to shed blood. How hopelessly evil, if grace had not given another nature through and according to the word of truth!
Wanting and not having is not a temporary shortfall. It is what happens to a heart chasing what cannot satisfy it — and that covers far more than bodily appetite.
The gratification of the lusts of the natural man produces fightings, and not the new nature, that which is from above. This includes all forms of lust — not only those of the flesh, but the lust for power, the lust for pre-eminence and leadership, the lusts of the mind. "You desire and do not have" — nothing can satisfy the heart of man. Any kind of lust ends in disappointment and remorse.
The same hunger has a picture in the animal world.
The wild beast knows nothing of restraint upon his passions. He tears and slaughters more than enough to satisfy his cravings, and yet is not satisfied, and slaughters again tomorrow. Man in his unconverted state is like this... This is indeed the way of the world, but let us see to it that we keep quite clear of this greedy, unsatisfied spirit.
The word "murder" shocks. But it names what envy does when it wants a rival out of the way — and the whole cycle turns out to be needless.
The flesh shows itself here in all its repulsive features. There is lust that is never fulfilled. There is the viciousness of virtual murder — putting another out of the way, because the heart is filled with envy. At the same time there is frustration, with murmuring and contention. Yet how foolish and unnecessary all of this is! "You do not have, because you do not ask." God will surely answer a quiet spirit of dependent faith that simply asks of Him.
That last clause lands hardest against God's own open invitation to ask.
There is no limit, except the limit that little faith may set. God does guard His giving, so that the gift is good — and that is not a limit. The Lord backs His exhortations twice over with the promise that "everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened." What a door this opens for us! What possibility of blessing! How rich we may all be, if only we will be! And yet the apostle's words could apply in the fresh early days when they were written: "You do not have, because you do not ask."
This letter does not speak to believers only. That is why the language can be so severe.
James does have Christians in view, but not Christians only. As he says himself, he is writing to the people of Israel, and not only to those in Israel who believe... So there is a word here for those among them who were plainly not born of God, as well.
Yet none of that lets a believer off. What fills the heart shapes what we ask for.
No man could seek His glory and the gratification of his own lusts at the same time. If we are near to Him, we will know how rich His giving is, and we will ask. Our knowledge of Him will guide our asking, and we will not ask wrongly.
Kelly traces where this whole course ends.
There are desires that come to nothing. There is violence taken to an extreme, and envy or jealousy in full measure, yet still no satisfaction. There is contention that keeps growing worse. There is no asking, and no answer of peace.
- Source — Quarrels start with self unjudged, and even their names come from a world that does not know God.
- Starvation — Wanting covers power, position and the mind, not just the body. No form of it ever ends satisfied.
- Sabotage — Envy pushes a rival out of the way and still gains nothing. The whole cycle is foolish and unnecessary.
- Silence — The one thing never tried is asking. God's door stands open. The only limits are small faith and His care that the gift be good.
- Solution — Nearness to God reshapes what we want, so we ask — and ask rightly.
Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask evilly, that ye may consume [it] in your pleasures.
Behind this verse stand people torn by quarrels, wanting what they do not have and fighting to get it. James has just told them they do not ask; now he says their asking fails too, because of the motive behind it.
The wants that drive these quarrels also drive the praying. One writer traces them back to the old nature and refuses to limit them to the coarse appetites:
They come from the pleasures that fight inside you. Satisfying the lusts of the natural man produces fighting... this includes all forms of lust, not only those of the flesh. It includes the lust for power, the lust to be first and to lead, and the lusts of the mind... The natural man is religious too, and so he prays. But their prayers came from the old nature, the desires of the flesh; they did not receive because they asked wrongly... Even true believers often ask and do not receive, because they ask wrongly, out of selfish reasons, to feed their own pleasures.
It would be easy to hear a rebuke about method here: the wrong words, the wrong posture. One writer rejects that reading and points to James's own explanation:
"Wrongly": does that point to something in the manner? No, because "we do not know what to pray for as we ought." No special manner or posture is needed. No particular words, no gift or skill in speaking, nothing unnatural or learned... Prayer is simply the breathing of a child — natural, trusting, humble, submissive. No, the passage itself explains the word: "to spend it on your passions."
It is easy to think this verse only catches shameful requests. But the word behind "passions" is wider than that:
The word "pleasures," given in the margin of the older translation, is correct. It is not "lusts," but "pleasures" — and they need not be bad pleasures. What is in view is self-pleasing, the plain desire of the natural mind. God's glory and our own spiritual profit are not considered at all. And God's people (see the next verse) are living in friendship with the world, which is spiritual adultery.
So the problem is not the thing asked for. The test lies deeper, and that changes where we look when heaven stays silent:
How plainly this teaches us that God looks at the heart. He examines the motive behind the asking. This is very searching, and it explains a lot of unanswered prayer. We may ask for completely right things and receive nothing, because we ask from completely wrong motives.
Read this way, the closed door stops being a puzzle and becomes a protection:
But on the other hand, someone may ask and not receive. Why? Because what moves him is not faith but the desire of the flesh. If he got what he wants, God knows it would damage his own soul. Man is lustful enough already, without God encouraging these lusts by answering prayer of this kind.
There is a worse possibility. God may grant such a prayer, and the granting itself becomes the discipline:
So if the desire is a mere lust, or is to be spent on lust, the prayer goes unanswered (James 4:3), or the answer comes as chastisement — a Kibroth-hattaavah, a grave of lust. If the prayer is in the Spirit, and is the prayer of faith, the answer comes as asked.
The remedy is not tighter wording but a heart already full of something else. Two desires cannot fill the same heart:
It is when Christ and His glory control us that we will pray in His Name... We will not be guilty of such folly, if the glory of the Lord fills our souls. No man can seek His glory and the satisfying of his own lusts at the same time. If we are near to Him, we will know the wealth of His giving, and we will ask.
- Source. Failed prayer starts where the fighting starts: in the old nature. Its appetites include the hunger for power and place, not just bodily desire.
- Meaning. "Wrongly" is not about manner, words or posture. James defines it by the phrase that follows: spending the answer on yourself.
- Scope. The word is "pleasures," and they need not be evil ones. Plain self-pleasing, with God's glory left out of the account, is enough to spoil the prayer.
- Test. God weighs the motive, not the item. He turns down right prayers asked for wrong reasons.
- Outcome. A refusal is mercy; it spares the soul the damage of its own desire. The frightening answer is yes, given as chastisement — a grave of lust.