James 4

A few things stand out to me:

The beginning of the chapter (v. 1-4) discusses fights and quarrels among believers caused by envying.  He then makes the point that all we need, we can receive from God.  If our prayers are not answered, it is because we have the wrong motives.  One such wrong motive seems to implicitly be "friendship" with the world.

This is not a comprehensive list of reasons for unanswered prayers.  But it is the only one that James focuses on.  Other areas in the Bible for unanswered prayers are lack of faith (Jesus said he could not perform miracles for this reason) or even weird things happening in the angelic world (see Daniel 10).

James (v. 6) seems to refer to Proverbs 3:34 for the proposition that "God opposes the proud".  If we check these verses in the NIV, it says that "He mocks proud mockers".  In context, "He" is God, but the precise language is different.  James may have been using a different translation or James is putting down his belief of what the Proverb means.

"Come near to God and he will come near to you" (v. 8) - this stands out as a beautiful phrase to remember.

"If it is the Lord's will, we will live" (v. 15) - I have heard a lot of talk about "Carpe Diem", to seize the day.  On one hand, it reflects a Biblical perspective to rejoice in the day the Lord has made.  That said, God can extend our lives.  We do not need to live selfishly or feel that we have to do everything at once today.  We can take our time, relax, and do it humbly before the Lord.

Likewise, Carpe Diem is not a license to live selfishly or against God's plan for us.  Rather, living humbly before the Lord means we have to treat others with respect.


"Anyone who knows the good he ought to do, but does not do it, sins" (v. 17) - this might be a relatively famous portion of the text.  It discusses sins by omitting to do something.  It does imply that sin is contextual to the individual, but only in regards to awareness of what a person ought to do.  For this, I think of someone who is called by God to do a certain action (for example, God told Jonah to go to Nineveh) and the person went the other way (Jonah fled).

Note, it does not say the converse, that "not knowing something is a sin and doing it, is not sin."

Likewise, it also requires a knowledge of what a person ought to do.

Finally, the statement about sins of omissions is probably taken out of context.  It has value as a stand alone phrase, but in the context of James 4, James is discussing boasting v. humility to God.  He says that people know they ought to be humble, but they are not, so they are sinning.