James 4:2
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.
Darby Translation
In The King James Version
In Context
3Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask evilly, that ye may consume [it] in your pleasures.
Cross References
1 Kings 21:6And he said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth the Jizreelite and said to him, Give me thy vineyard for money; or else, if it please thee, I will give thee a vineyard for it; and he said, I will not give thee my vineyard.
Ecclesiastes 4:8There is one [alone] and without a second; also he hath neither son nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour, neither is his eye satisfied with riches, and [he saith not], For whom then am I labouring, and depriving my soul of good? This also is vanity and a grievous occupation.
Habakkuk 2:5And moreover, the wine is treacherous: he is a proud man, and keepeth not at rest, he enlargeth his desire as Sheol, and he is like death and cannot be satisfied; and he assembleth unto him all nations, and gathereth unto him all peoples.
Luke 11:9And *I* say to you, Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.
John 16:24Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
James 1:5But if any one of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all freely and reproaches not, and it shall be given to him:
Matthew Henry on James 4:2-11
Origin of War and Contention; Against Pride; Submission to God. ( a. d. 61.) 1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. 4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever… Read the whole commentary →