Catholic Commentary on James 4

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." (James 4:10)

The Root of Conflict

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Do they not come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but do not get it. You covet but cannot have what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives. You adulterous people, friendship with the world means enmity against God. Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail, and God will lift you up. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

The diagnosis is precise: the conflicts in the community are the external symptom of the internal war of desires. The solution James proposes is not conflict resolution but conversion: draw near to God, and the proximity to God will change what you desire, which will change how you treat others. The Catechism identifies humility as the foundation of the moral life, the virtue that correctly orients the whole person in relation to God and others (CCC 2559).

Against Judging and Boasting

Do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister is speaking against the law. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge. Who are you to judge your neighbour? Now listen, you who say today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city and make money. You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say: if it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that. James is not warning against planning; he is warning against the arrogant assumption that the future belongs to us.

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up. James does not say: perform the correct rituals, argue the correct theology, be seen at the correct events. He says humble yourselves. The humbling is the prerequisite. The lifting is God's work, done in his time and in his way. Trust him with the lifting and attend to the humbling.

Prayer

Lord God, we resist the devil and draw near to you. Humble us before you so that you may lift us up. Purify our hearts from the double-mindedness that wants you and the world at the same time. And let our plans be always: if it is the Lord's will. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

4
A Warning against Pride
1 What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?* 4:1 Literally passions warring among your members? 2 You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.
 
4 You adulteresses!† 4:4 See Hosea 3:1. Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself ‡ 4:4 Or is appointed an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit § 4:5 Or the spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy? 6 But He gives us more grace. This is why it says:
 
“God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.”* 4:6 Proverbs 3:34 (see also LXX)
Drawing Near to God
 
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.
 
11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. And if you judge the law, you are not a practitioner of the law, but a judge of it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Do Not Boast about Tomorrow
(Proverbs 27:1)
 
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.” 14 You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
 
15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin.

*4:1 4:1 Literally passions warring among your members?

†4:4 4:4 See Hosea 3:1.

‡4:4 4:4 Or is appointed

§4:5 4:5 Or the spirit

*4:6 4:6 Proverbs 3:34 (see also LXX)

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