Contention in a Community
T. Manton. James 4:1-3 From where come wars and fights among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?… 1. Lust is the makebait in a community. Covetousness, pride, and ambition make men injurious and insolent. (1) Covetousness maketh us to contend with those that have anything that we covet, as Ahab with Naboth. (2) Pride is the cockatrice egg that discloseth the fiery flying serpent (Proverbs 13:10). (3) Ambition. Diotrephes' loving the pre-eminence disturbed the Churches of Asia (3 John 1:10). (4) Envy. Abraham and Lot's herdsmen fell out (Genesis 13:7). 2. When evils abound in a place it is good to look after the rise and cause of them. Men engage in a heat, and do not know wherefore: usually lust is at the bottom; the sight of the cause will shame us. 3. Lust is a tyrant that warreth in the soul, and warreth against the soul. (1) It warreth in the soul; it abuseth your affections, to carry on the rebellion against heaven (Galatians 5:17). (2) It warreth against the soul (1 Peter 2:11). (T. Manton.) Parallel Verses KJV: From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? WEB: Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don't they come from your pleasures that war in your members?