james-4:7

G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible - James 4:1-17

The writer now dealt with the effect of faith on character. Everything depends on desire. To attempt to satisfy a natural desire without reference to God is futile, and issues in internal conflict and outward warfare and strife. The writer inquired, "Doth the Spirit which He made to dwell in us long unto envying?" It is self-evident that the Spirit of God does not create desire which issues in envying. The divine corrective of such a condition is, first, that God "giveth more grace . . . to... read more

James Nisbet

James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary - James 4:7

THE COMBAT WITH EVIL‘Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.’ James 4:7 Temptation is the root of sin: if you want to fight against sin you must look to the root of it, and you must resist temptation. Christ came to show us how to resist temptation in order that we might not fall into sin. The history of Christ’s temptation is meant to teach us what temptation is, what kinds of temptations there are, where it comes from, and how to overcome it when it comes. When any one is being taught... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - James 4:6-10

As A Consequence They Are To Subject Themselves to God, Resist the Devil, And Draw Near to God By Purifying Themselves And Truly Repenting (James 4:6-10 ). The condition of some of God’s professed people having been revealed somewhat emphatically, James now calls on them to get back to God, responding to His jealous love which seeks to bring their spirit back to Him. It is a question of humbling themselves, submitting themselves to God, resisting the Devil, and then drawing near to God so... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - James 4:7

‘And resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.’ As a consequence of this submission they will be resisting the Devil and he will flee from them, as Satan fled from before Joshua (after Zechariah 3:3 Satan drops out of sight and is heard of no more). Notice that the way in which we are always to resist Satan when it is a question of dealing with the pride of life and the friendship of the world is by submission to God. Then all Satan can do is run. While for His people all the glories of the... read more

Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - James 4:1-10

James 4:1-2 Samuel : . The climax of the last paragraph leads to a diagnosis of the disease that poisoned quarrelsome Jewish communities. Faction fights were the logical outcome of unbridled passions; they “ campaign against man’ s self” ( 1 Peter 2:11), and weaken his power of control. James 4:2 is best rendered, “ You covet, and miss what you want— then you murder. Aye, you are envious and cannot get your desire— then you fight and wage war.” It is hard to see how faction that would not... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - James 4:7

Submit yourselves therefore to God; viz. voluntarily and freely, and that not only in a way of obedience to all his commands, but (which is chiefly meant here) in a way of humility, and sense of your weakness, and emptiness, and need of his grace. Therefore; both because of the danger of pride, (opposed in the former verse to humility), he resisteth the proud; and because of the benefit that comes by humility, he giveth grace to the humble. Resist, by faith, and the rest of the spiritual... read more

Joseph Exell

Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary - James 4:5-10

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTESJames 4:5.—The precise rendering is doubtful. There is no passage either in the Canonical or Apocryphal Scriptures that is here referred to. The Revised Version gives in the text, “Doth the spirit which He made to dwell in us long unto envying? But He giveth more grace.” And in the margin two renderings: “The spirit which He made to dwell in us He yearneth for even unto jealousy”; “That spirit which He made to dwell in us yearneth for us even unto jealous envy.” In... read more

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible - James 4:7

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unconditional Surrender A Sermon (No. 1276) Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, January 30th, 1876, by C. H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Submit yourselves therefore to God." James 4:7 . THIS ADVICE SHOULD NOT NEED much pressing. "Submit yourselves unto God" is it not right upon the very face of it? Is it not... read more

Chuck Smith

Chuck Smith Bible Commentary - James 4:1-17

Chapter 4This chapter could be entitled how to win friends and influence people. Guard your tongue, bring your tongue under control, use it for good, use it to encourage to build up, don't use it to tear down, to destroy, to cut, to hurt. Your wisdom, let it be Godly wisdom let it be demonstrated in your manner of life, that is your life let it be pure. Let your life be peaceable, merciful. Now this fruit of righteousness that we desire is actually sown in peace and that fruit of righteousness... read more

Joseph Sutcliffe

Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments - James 4:1-17

James 4:1-2 . From whence come wars and fightings among you? St. James saw in the Spirit the bloody and cruel wars which would rise among christian powers, much the same as among the heathen. He had a clear conviction that the cause of wars is uniformly the same, namely, evil concupiscence, pride, avarice, revenge. The prophet Isaiah assigns the same reason for all wars, the pride of the human heart, Judah envying Ephraim, and Ephraim vexing Judah. Isaiah 11:13. He also adds the promise,... read more