James 4:3

Jas 4:3. Καὶ οὐ λαμβάνετε, and ye receive not) He does not here say, ye have not. To ask and to receive are relative terms.—αἰτεῖσθε, ye ask) Now he refutes others who wish to appear somewhat better than these.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jam_4:3. James apparently again resumes the last expression, whilst he now grants αἰτεῖτε to his readers; but as he designates this their asking as κακῶς αἰτεῖσθαι, he does not consider it as an actual prayer, so that the foregoing declaration is nevertheless true. It is therefore inaccurate to resolve αἰτεῖτε into or even if you ask.[193]

On the interchange of middle and active forms, see Winer, p. 229 [E. T. 321]. The middle form naturally suggested itself in Jam_4:2, prayer for others being not the point under consideration; but in the next clause, as James wished to lay stress on the active sideof prayer in antithesis to ΛΑΜΒΆΝΕΙΝhe used the active form. Egotistical praying for oneself (Lange) is incorrectly understood by the middle.

καὶ οὐ λαμβάνετε] emphasizes the uselessness of their asking, the reason of which is assigned by the following: ΔΙΌΤΙ ΚΑΚῶς ΑἸΤΕῖΣΘΕ. ΚΑΚῶς finds its explanation in the following ἽΝΑ; your prayer is therefore evil, because it has no other object than ΔΑΠΑΝᾷΝ ἘΝ ΤΑῖς ἩΔΟΝΑῖς. Incorrectly Gebser: for your prayer must implore only for true heavenly blessings. The discourse is here rather of the temporal condition; this, James observes, continues with you a poor and depressed one, because ye ask for a better one only in order to be able to indulge your lusts.

ΔΑΠΑΝᾷΝ] to expend, spend (Mar_5:26); here, in a bad sense, to squander, to lavish. Suidas: λαμπρῶς ζῆν καὶ σπαθᾷν; the object to the transitive verb is that for which you pray. ἘΝ ΤΑῖς ἩΔΟΝΑῖς ὙΜῶΝ] not with, but in your lusts. Wahl incorrectly explains δαπανᾷν ἐν = sumtum ponere in aliqua re, i.e. τιθέναι τὰ χρήματα ἔν τινι; this meaning combines ΔΑΠΑΝᾷΝ with ΕἸς. The sense is not for the gratification of your lusts (Baumgarten), but governed by your lusts.

[193] Semler very strangely paraphrases it: scio, quosdam vel publieis precibus (et exsecrationibus, iii. 9) eam in rem parcere, mala omnia preeari imperatori et magistratui Romano.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jas 4:3 . αἰτεῖτε … αἰτεῖσθε : There does not seem to be any difference in meaning between the active and middle here: “If the middle is really the stronger word, we can understand its being brought in just where an effect of contrast can be secured, while in ordinary passages the active would carry as much weight as was needed” (Moulton, op. cit. , p. 160); cf. Mar 6:22-25 ; Mar 10:35-38 ; 1Jn 5:15 . δαπανήσητε : Cf. Luk 15:14 ; Luk 15:30 ; Act 21:24 .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. By aiming at pleasure men cut themselves off from the only sure source or true satisfaction.

οὐκ ἔχετε returns to the matter of the unsatisfied desire (ἐπιθυμεῖτε καὶ οὐκ ἔχετε) in order to point out another aspect of the futility of pleasure as a supreme end. So long as men allow their lives to be governed by ἡ ἐπιθυμία τῶν ἡδονῶν, their desire is sure to be unsatisfied. The only sure source from which men can always receive is God. By choosing pleasure as their aim, men cut themselves off from this source, for they do not ask God for gratifications such as these, or, if they do, only find that their prayers, aiming at their own pleasures and not at his service, are unacceptable, and that they ought not to have offered them.

James’s principle is: Make the service of God your supreme end, and then your desires will be such as God can fulfil in answer to your prayer (cf. Mat 6:31-33). Then there will be none of the present strife. Pleasures war, and cause war. Desire for pleasure, when made the controlling end, leads to violence, for longings then arise which can only be satisfied by the use of violence, since God, from whom alone come good things (1:17), will not satisfy them.

It should be needless to point out that οὐκ ἔχετε is not thought of as the result of μάχεσθε καὶ πολεμεῖτε.

διὰ τὸ μὴ αἰτεῖσθαι ὑμᾶς. The ὑμᾶς is unnecessary, but not emphatic. Cf. 1:18, 4:15. αἰτεῖσθαι here means prayers to God.

3. αἰτεῖτε, cf. Jas 1:5 f., Mat 7:7, Mat 21:22, Mar 11:24, Luk 11:9, Joh 14:13, Joh 14:15:7, Joh 14:16, Joh 14:16:23 f. Joh 14:26, 1Jn 3:22, 1Jn 5:14 f..

Here, as often in secular Greek (cf. L. and S.), no difference in meaning is perceptible between the active and middle of αἰτεῖν. Cf. 1Jn 5:15-16 αἰτώμεθα, ᾐτήκαμεν, αἰτησει, Mar 6:22, Mar 6:24 αἴτησον, αἰτήσωμαι, and other examples quoted by Mayor.

That there was once a distinction in use is likely, but even the statements quoted by Stephanus, Thesaur. s. v., that αἰτεῖσθαι means to ask μετʼ ἱκεσίας or μετὰ παρακλήσεως do not make the matter intelligible. See J. H. Moulton, Prolegomena, p. 160; J. B. Mayor, in Expositor, 8th series, vol. iii, 1912, pp. 522-527; Hort, ad loc.

κακῶς, “wrongly,” cf. Wisd. 14:29, 30, 4 Macc. 6:17. The following clause explains this to mean: “with the selfish purpose of securing pleasure, not of serving God,” cf. Mat 6:32. For rabbinical ideas of bad prayers, see Schöttgen on Jas 4:3.

The promises are that the prayers of the righteous and the penitent will be heard; cf. Psa 34:15-17, Psa 145:18, Pro 10:24, Ps. Son 6:6, Luk 18:9-14, Jas 1:6 ff., 1Jn 5:14, Hermas, Sim. iv, 6.

ἵνα ἐν ταῖς ἡδοναῖς ὑμῶν δαπανήσητε. “ἐν marking the realm in rather than the object on” (Lex. s. v. δαπανάω). The distinction is thus not in the things prayed for, but in the purpose with which they are to be used, and for which they are desired—i. e. whether pleasure or the service of God. Hence probably the unusual, though not unexampled, preposition.

δαπανήσητε, “spend”; not necessarily “waste,” nor “squander”; cf. Act 21:24, 2Co 12:15, 2Co 12:1 Macc. 14:32. The object of δαπανήσητε is the means of securing enjoyment for which they pray; throughout the passage money is especially in mind.

δαπανήσητε] אcAKLP minnomn vid.

δαπανήσετε] B.

καταδαπανήσετε] א*.

B and א have both fallen into error.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Some of them are supposed to say in objection, But we do "ask" (pray); compare Jam 4:2. James replies, It is not enough to ask for good things, but we must ask with a good spirit and intention. "Ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it (your object of prayer) upon (literally, 'in') your lusts (literally, 'pleasures')"; not that ye may have the things you need for the service of God. Contrast Jam 1:5 with Mat 6:31-32. If ye prayed aright, all your proper wants would be supplied; the improper cravings which produce "wars and fightings" would then cease. Even believers' prayers are often best answered when their desires are most opposed.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 3. Ye ask, and receive not] Some think that this refers to their prayers for the conversion of the heathen; and on the pretence that they were not converted thus; they thought it lawful to extirpate them and possess their goods.

Ye ask amiss] κακως αιτεισθε. Ye ask evilly, wickedly. Ye have not the proper dispositions of prayer, and ye have an improper object. Ye ask for worldly prosperity, that ye may employ it in riotous living. This is properly the meaning of the original, ἱνα εν ταις ἡδοναις ὑμων δαπανησητε, That ye may expend it upon your pleasures. The rabbins have many good observations on asking amiss or asking improperly, and give examples of different kinds of this sort of prayer; the phrase is Jewish and would naturally occur to St. James in writing on this subject. Whether the lusting of which St. James speaks were their desire to make proselytes, in order that they might increase their power and influence by means of such, or whether it were a desire to cast off the Roman yoke, and become independent; the motive and the object were the same, and the prayers were such as God could not hear.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3 Ye seek and receive not. He goes farther: though they sought, yet they were deservedly denied; because they wished to make God the minister of their own lusts. For they set no bounds to their wishes, as he had commanded; but gave unbridled license to themselves, so as to ask those things of which man, conscious of what is right, ought especially to be ashamed. Pliny somewhere ridicules this impudence, that men so wickedly abuse the ears of God. The less tolerable is such a thing in Christians, who have had the rule of prayer given them by their heavenly Master.

And doubtless there appears to be in us no reverence for God, no fear of him, in short, no regard for him, when we dare to ask of him what even our own conscience does not approve. James meant briefly this, — that our desires ought to be bridled: and the way of bridling them is to subject them to the will of God. And he also teaches us, that what we in moderation wish, we ought to seek from God himself; which if it be done, we shall be preserved from wicked contentions, from fraud and violence, and from doing any injury to others.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

3. Ye ask, and receive not …] The words are obviously written as in answer to an implied objection: “Not ask,” a man might say; “come and listen to our prayers; no one can accuse us of neglecting our devotions.” Incredible as it might seem that men plundering and murdering, as the previous verses represent them, should have held such language, or been in any sense, men who prayed, the history of Christendom presents but too many instances of like anomalies. Cornish wreckers going from church to their accursed work, Italian brigands propitiating their patron Saint before attacking a company of travellers, slave-traders, such as John Newton once was, recording piously God’s blessing on their traffic of the year;—these may serve to shew how soon conscience may be seared, and its warning voice come to give but an uncertain sound.

that ye may consume it upon your lusts] Better, that ye may spend it in your pleasures. This then was that which vitiated all their prayers. They prayed not for the good of others, nor even for their own true good, but for the satisfaction of that which was basest in their nature, and which they, as disciples of Christ, were specially called on to repress.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ye ask, and receive not,.... Some there were that did ask of God the blessings of his goodness and providence, and yet these were not bestowed on them; the reason was,

because ye ask amiss; not in the faith of a divine promise; nor with thankfulness for past mercies; nor with submission to the will of God; nor with a right end, to do good to others, and to make use of what might be bestowed, for the honour of God, and the interest of Christ: but

that ye may consume it upon your lusts; indulge to intemperance and luxury; as the man that had much goods laid up for many years did, to the neglect of his own soul, Luk 12:19 or the rich man, who spent all upon his back and his belly, and took no notice of Lazarus at his gate; Luk 16:19.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

Ver. 3. Ye ask and receive not] Ye ask and miss, because ye ask amiss. It is the manner that makes or mars an action.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ye ask, and receive not - That is, some of you ask, or you ask on some occasions. Though seeking in general what you desire by strife, and without regard to the rights of others, yet you sometimes pray. It is not uncommon for men who go to war to pray, or to procure the services of a chaplain to pray for them. It sometimes happens that the covetous and the quarrelsome; that those who live to wrong others, and who are fond of litigation, pray. Such men may be professors of religion. They keep up a form of worship in their families. They pray for success in their worldly engagements, though those engagements are all based on covetousness. Instead of seeking property that they may glorify God, and do good; that they may relieve the poor and distressed; that they may be the patrons of learning, philanthropy, and religion, they do it that they may live in splendor, and be able to pamper their lusts. It is not indeed very common that persons with such ends and aims of life pray, but they sometimes do it; for, alas! there are many professors of religion who have no higher aims than these, and not a few such professors feel that consistency demands that they should observe some form of prayer. If such persons do not receive what they ask for, if they are not prospered in their plans, they should not set it down as evidence that God does not hear prayer, but as evidence that their prayers are offered for improper objects, or with improper motives.

Because ye ask amiss - Ye do it with a view to self-indulgence and carnal gratification.

That you may consume it upon your lusts - Margin, “pleasures.” This is the same word which is used in Jam 4:1, and rendered lusts. The reference is to sensual gratifications, and the word would include all that comes under the name of sensual pleasure, or carnal appetite. It was not that they might have a decent and comfortable living, which would not be improper to desire, but that they might have the means of luxurious dress and living; perhaps the means of gross sensual gratifications. Prayers offered that we may have the means of sensuality and voluptuousness, we have no reason to suppose God will answer, for he has not promised to hear such prayers; and it becomes every one who prays for worldly prosperity, and for success in business, to examine his motives with the closest scrutiny. Nowhere is deception more likely to creep in than into such prayers; nowhere are we more likely to be mistaken in regard to our real motives, than when we go before God and ask for success in our worldly employments.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ye ask; he prevents an objection; q.d. Admit you do pray for the good things you want, or, though you pray for them.

Ye ask amiss; though you pray for good things, yet you do not pray well, or in a right manner, not according to God’s will, 1Jo 5:14, and therefore ye are not to complain of not being heard.

That ye may consume it upon your lusts; you pray for the things of this life only, that you may have wherewith to please the flesh, and gratify your carnal appetites, and so an evil end spoils good means; and while you would have God serve your lusts you lose your prayers.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. Ask amiss—A sort of correction of his phrase ask not in last verse. The amiss consists in the sensual nature of their prayers. The asking for the gratification of our unholy natures is a prayer which is not a prayer.

Consume—Or expend it, not upon, but in, your lusts. In your lusts expresses the moral condition in which they offered their prayerless prayers. A Greek brigand at the present day can unite robbery and murder with the most devout adoration of the virgin.

Thus far in this chapter (1-3) our apostle has pictured the depraved and disturbed state of the world, especially in his own age. Next (4-10) he draws the antithesis between God and the world, between which his readers must make their choice, as the two are incompatible.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

An evident allusion to the sermon on the mount, Mat_7:7, Ask, and it shall be given to you for every one that asketh receiveth." And yet St. James says, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss;" for our Lord elsewhere limits his teaching, All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing," etc.. (Mat_21:22) Aijteite... aijteisqe. The active and middle voices are similarly interchanged in 1Jn_5:15, on which Dr. Westcott writes as follows: "The distinction between the middle and the active is not so sharply drawn; but generally the personal reference is suggested by the middle, while the request is left wholly undefined as to its destination by the active." That ye may consume it upon your lusts; render, with R.V, that ye may spend it in your pleasures; hJdonai as in ver. 1.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But if ye do ask, ye receive not, because ye ask amiss - That is, from a wrong motive.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

3. Ye ask, and receive not. Some even have prayed for the things which would satisfy their lusts, but God hears not such prayers.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

3. αἰτεῖτε … αἰτεῖσθε. The active and middle seem to be used indiscriminately as in the case of some other verbs, as ἀκούω and ἀκούομαι, ἰδεῖν and ἰδέσθαι, φλέγειν and φλέγεσθαι. Clyde, § 31 d. Comp. also Luk 15:6; Luk 15:9, συγκαλεῖ … συγκαλεῖται, ADE al. plu.: the cause of this being that the older form in -μαι has never been quite displaced by the newer form in -ω. This is the more to be expected in a verb of petition which necessarily implies the force of a middle, viz. that the action is done in some way for or towards oneself, or in one’s own interest. Monro, p. 8; Jelf, § 368.

αἰτεῖτε however may be preferred on account of λαμβάνετε, and the two middles αἰτεῖσθαι and αἰτεῖσθε connect the clauses in which they are used.

As Trench points out, αἰτεῖν (Lat. petere) in N.T. always retains its proper sense of begging from a superior. Thus our Lord never uses αἰτεῖν or αἰτεῖσθαι of Himself in respect of what He seeks on behalf of His disciples from God. The word employed is always ἐρωτᾶν (Lat. rogare), an asking, that is, upon equal terms. Joh 14:16; Joh 16:26; Joh 17:9; Joh 17:15; Joh 17:20. See Trench, N.T. Syn. sub voc.

ἐν ἡδοναῖς. Not upon but in your pleasures.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3.] ye ask (notice the unaccountable interchange of active and middle, αἰτεῖσθαι … αἰτεῖτε … αἰτεῖσθε, all referring to the same act) and do not receive, because ye ask amiss (with evil intent, see below), that ye may spend (it) (that which ye ask for) in (‘in the exercise of,’ ‘under the dominion of:’ ἐν does not belong to the verb (δαπανᾶν ἐν, ‘to spend on,’ “that ye may consume it upon” as E. V., which would be δαπανᾶν εἰς), but to the state in which the spenders are, q. d. in the course of satisfying) your lusts. The general sense is: if you really prayed aright, this feeling of continual craving after more worldly things would not exist: all your proper wants would be supplied: and these improper ones which beget wars and fightings among you would not exist. Ye would ask, and ask aright, and consequently would obtain.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ye ask [αιτειτε] . See on hjrwtwn, besought, Mt 14:23. Amiss [κακως] . Lit., evilly : with evil intent, as explained by the following sentence.

Consume it upon [δαπανησητε εν] . More correctly, as Rev., spend it in. The sense is not lay out expense upon your pleasures, but spend in the exercise of; under the dominion of.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.