James 4:2

You covet things and yet cannot get them; you commit murder; you have passionate desires and yet cannot gain your end; you begin to fight and make war. You have not, because you do not pray;

Weymouth NT (1912)

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

1What causes wars and contentions among you? Is it not the cravings which are ever at war within you for various pleasures?

3or you pray and yet do not receive, because you pray wrongly, your object being to waste what you get on some pleasure or another.

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Cross References

Luke 11:9"So I say to you, `Ask, and what you ask for shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and the door shall be opened to you.'

John 16:24As yet you have not asked for anything in my name: ask, and you shall receive, that your hearts may be filled with gladness.

James 1:5And if any one of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask God for it, who gives with open hand to all men, and without upbraiding; and it will be given 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 →

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