A. Summons to Surrender to God (4:1-10)
This whole section has in view an acquisitive society, the competition for material things and the pleasure they bring. It begins with the manifold desires of individuals that need to be satisfied; so individuals mobilize, each one, to seize the desired object. When they step outside the self, they engage in competition with other persons, even to the point of fierce conflict. So intense is the desire for possessions that they are ready to commit murder (Barclay). At the same time they use from their arsenal the instrument of prayer; but this proves ineffective, for “you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (3:3). (jb says, “You have not prayed properly; you prayed for something to indulge your own desires.”) Inappropriate prayer proceeds from a tenuous relationship with God.
To address the people as adulterous (v.4) sounds unduly harsh. The word, however, is intended to strike at the very heart of the problem—unfaithfulness in covenant privileges. It is applicable to both Jew and Christian. James follows with the accusation: “Don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (v.4). (The way he asks the question implies that they do know.) Jesus expressed the contradiction succinctly: “You cannot serve both God and Money” (Mt 6:24).
James continues with a paraphrase from Scripture, which, he insinuates, they have been ignoring. Translators are divided as to which of the two contrasting meanings is intended. Barclay gives priority to the following sense: “God yearns jealously for the loving devotion of the spirit he implanted within us.” The NEB understands it conversely: “The spirit which God implanted in man turns toward envious desires.”
The latter rendering, which is followed by the NIV, treats the scriptural allusion as a climactic confirmation of spiritual infidelity. James follows immediately, then, with the evangelical assurance, “But he gives us more grace.” The former rendering, on the other hand, makes the quotation the turning point in the appeal. The choice of meaning may rest upon the function of the phrase “That is why,” which introduces the reference to Scripture. James is pointing out two counts in which they are wrong in tolerating avaricious materialism: suspending reason and ignoring Scripture.
God fights on the side of the humble person who has surrendered to him. This surrender has a number of facets. James displays these in a series of ten commands directed toward a fundamental change in life. He bids them to meet God, rid themselves of polluting attitudes, and allow God to renew their spirits. By this a person claims victory over the flesh and the Devil. This is the Wesleyan understanding of conversion.
Adam Clarke (6:781) elaborates the summons to purify oneself as follows:
Separate yourselves from the world, and consecrate yourselves to God; this is the true notion of sanctification. . . . Two things are implied in a man’s sanctification: 1. That he separate himself from evil ways and evil companions, and devote himself to God. 2. That God separates guilt from his conscience, and sin from his soul, and thus makes him internally and externally holy.