Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of James 4:3
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume [it] upon your lusts.
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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
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] . 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, , 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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 Gods 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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. Some of them are supposed tosay in objection, But we do “ask” (pray); compare Jas4:2. James replies, It is not enough to ask for good things, butwe 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 thatye may have the things you need for the service of God. ContrastJas 1:5; Mat 6:31;Mat 6:32. If ye prayed aright,all your proper wants would be supplied; the improper cravings whichproduce “wars and fightings” would then cease. Evenbelievers’ prayers are often best answered when their desires aremost opposed.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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, Lu 12:19 or the rich man, who spent all upon his back and his belly, and took no notice of Lazarus at his gate; Lu 16:19.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Because ye ask amiss ( ). Here the indirect middle does make sense, “ye ask for yourselves” and that is “evilly” or amiss (), as James explains.
That ye may spend it in your pleasures ( ). Purpose clause with and the first aorist subjunctive of , old verb from , cost (Lu 14:28 only in N.T.), to squander (Lu 15:14). God does not hear prayers like this.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Ye ask [] . See on hjrwtwn, besought, Mt 14:23. Amiss [] . Lit., evilly : with evil intent, as explained by the following sentence.
Consume it upon [ ] . 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.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
James charged that the brethren often asked (Gr. kakos) amiss, selfishly, covetously, on their own behalf or for their own purpose of personal gain and squandering on one’s self, in sensual pleasures. Such is evil, (1Co 12:31; Psa 66:18; Mat 6:31-32). Selfish, covetous prayers, are not in God’s will, go unanswered.
COVETOUSNESS
Is Covetousness a disease? Yes! It is a disease of the soul I With the passing of the years, passions burn low. Not so of the soul-shriveling, character-tarnishing, personality-dwarfing sin of covetousness. This sin tightens its grasp upon its wretched victims as they grow older.
That man may breathe, but never live,
Who much receives, but nothing gives;
Whom none can love, whom none can thank,
Creation’s blot, creation’s blank!
-W. B. K.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
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.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
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.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘You ask, and do not receive, because you ask for the wrong reasons, that you may spend (dissipate) it in your pleasures.’
And even when they do sometimes ask God for it they still do not receive satisfaction of heart. And that is because their motives are wrong. The failure is due to the fact that they ask for the wrong reasons, because their motives are totally selfish. Their sole aim is simply to enjoy the fulfilment of their earthy desires and aims. They want to dissipate whatever benefit that they obtain on pleasure. They reason that they want what they are asking for because it will enable them to use it up for their own worldly satisfaction. They are caught up in the vortex of the world. Their heart is not really on God.
There is an important lesson for us all here concerning prayer. It reminds us that God is not there just to give us whatever we decide that we want. His promises with respect to prayer are not open-ended but are given to those who are seeking to fulfil His will, and in order to help them in the fulfilment of that will. Thus, if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me (Psa 66:18), for the eyes of the Lord are towards the righteous, and His ear is open to their cry, while the face of the Lord is against evildoers (Psa 34:15-16). For the fact is that He is only near to those who call on Him in truth (Psa 145:18). It is if we ‘ask anything in accordance with His will’ that He hears us, so that we can know then that we will receive an answer to our prayers (1Jn 5:14). For the promise ‘ask and you will receive, seek and you will find’ is not with regard to anything we choose, but has in mind the seeking of the good things of God, and especially the Holy Spirit (Mat 7:7-11; Luk 11:9-13). Thus when we dare to pray ‘for Jesus’ sake’ we must ensure that we are praying for what Jesus would want us to have. We cannot ask in His Name for what is contrary to His will.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jas 4:3 . James apparently again resumes the last expression, whilst he now grants to his readers; but as he designates this their asking as , he does not consider it as an actual prayer, so that the foregoing declaration is nevertheless true. It is therefore inaccurate to resolve 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 Jas 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 side of prayer in antithesis to he used the active form. “ Egotistical praying for oneself” (Lange) is incorrectly understood by the middle.
] emphasizes the uselessness of their asking, the reason of which is assigned by the following: . finds its explanation in the following ; your prayer is therefore evil, because it has no other object than . 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.
] to expend, spend (Mar 5:26 ); here, in a bad sense, to squander, to lavish. Suidas: ; the object to the transitive verb is “that for which you pray.” ] not with , but in your lusts. Wahl incorrectly explains = sumtum ponere in aliqua re, i.e. ; this meaning combines with . 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.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
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.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
3.] ye ask (notice the unaccountable interchange of active and middle, , 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:’ does not belong to the verb ( , ‘to spend on,’ “that ye may consume it upon” as E. V., which would be ), 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.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Jas 4:3 . : 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 . : Cf. Luk 15:14 ; Luk 15:30 ; Act 21:24 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
amiss = with evil intent. Greek. kakos. Compare App-128.
that = in order that. Greek. hina.
consume = spend. See Luk 15:14.
upon = in (gratifying). App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
3.] ye ask (notice the unaccountable interchange of active and middle, , 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: does not belong to the verb ( , to spend on, that ye may consume it upon as E. V., which would be ), 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.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Jam 4:3. , and ye receive not) He does not here say, ye have not. To ask and to receive are relative terms.-, ye ask) Now he refutes others who wish to appear somewhat better than these.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
and: Jam 1:6, Jam 1:7, Job 27:8-10, Job 35:12, Psa 18:41, Psa 66:18, Psa 66:19, Pro 1:28, Pro 15:8, Pro 21:13, Pro 21:27, Isa 1:15, Isa 1:16, Jer 11:11, Jer 11:14, Jer 14:12, Mic 3:4, Zec 7:13, Mat 20:22, Mar 10:38, 1Jo 3:22, 1Jo 5:14
ye may: Luk 15:13, Luk 15:30, Luk 16:1, Luk 16:2
lusts: or, pleasures, Jam 4:1
Reciprocal: 1Sa 28:6 – inquired 1Ki 2:22 – why dost 1Ki 3:11 – hast not Job 16:18 – let my cry Job 27:9 – Will God Job 35:13 – God Psa 78:18 – by asking meat Isa 43:22 – thou hast not Isa 45:19 – Seek Eze 36:37 – I will yet Hos 7:14 – assemble Luk 11:1 – teach Luk 11:10 – General Joh 4:15 – give Joh 6:26 – Ye seek Joh 16:24 – ask Rom 8:26 – for we
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jas 4:3. While they did not ask in the proper way, some did make unlawful demands but were refused because of the impure motive that prompted the requests. That unrighteous motive was that their personal cravings might be gratified and not that lawful benefits might be obtained. The passage as a whole (verses 1-3) pictures a group of professed disciples who were confused and unsettled in their lives, trying to partake of the same practices as those of the world, at the same time pretending to be serving the Lord in things spiritual.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jas 4:3. Ye ask, and receive not: as if to anticipate the reply of his readers that they did ask, but still did not receive the object of their desires.
because ye ask amiss: or wrongly, wickedly; either in an improper spirit, without faith in God as the Hearer of prayer; or rather for improper objects, for worldly things which are pernicious in themselves or prejudicial to the petitionerfor the sole purpose of self-gratification, without any thought of the glory of God. Such asking is equivalent to not asking.
that ye may consume it (that which ye ask) on, or spend it in, your lusts: in order to gratify your own sinful desires. The meaning is: if you pray in a proper spirit, these selfish desires, which are the occasion of those bitter contentions among you, would cease to exist
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume [it] upon your lusts.
Rather straight forward – you pray for something, but don’t get it because you ask for things you can use to satisfy your own lust.
“Lust” is the word we base “hedonistic” on. It means lust and desire for pleasure. “Amiss” is a word that means sick or diseased. When we are praying for things for our own pleasure, we are diseased. Not a grand picture for a believer.
This might relate to praying for a new car, it might mean asking God to pay for an education that you want so you can be called by some title, it might relate to asking God to place you in a leadership role in the church for the title, and respect’s sake, rather than serving God.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
However, we often ask God for things to enable us to satisfy our own selfish desires. For example, we request more time, more money, more energy so we can do things that we desire but that God does not desire for us. What we need to ask Him to give us is more desire for what He promises and commands. We also need less desire for what is contrary to His will for us (cf. Mat 7:7-11).
"If prayer is no more than a formula (saying the right words, believe hard enough, confess; it will happen), then Christians are back to a type of magic: They can manipulate God or impose their will on God, for he has to answer. In contrast, New Testament prayer grows out of a trusting relationship with a father whose will is supreme." [Note: Davids, pp. 99-100.]
"In the life of a full-time Christian minister, some may devote themselves to the activist pursuits of endless caring for the sick and house-to-house ministry to the unsaved, and skimp sermon preparation. It may be called ’getting our priorities right’, but it may simply be an exercise in self-pleasing. Others lock the study door behind them. When they descend the pulpit steps on one Sunday they are already mentally climbing the same steps next Sunday. They may say that the pulpit is the best place to exercise pastoral care, and that they are putting first things first-but they may in fact just be indulging a passion." [Note: Motyer, p. 144.]