James 4:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

So it was with the Pharisee mentioned in the Gospel, Lk 18:10-14. The more he listed his virtues, the more he closed the divine hearing. His lofty speech was idle in his mouth and turned into foam, like a raging wave.

But someone will say: if the promise of the Lord Jesus, that unerring Teacher, is true, "Everyone who asks receives" (Mt 7:8), how does the present Apostle now say this?

We answer: for the one who approaches prayer by the proper path, that promise is true. He will not be deceived in anything he asks.

But if someone departs from the aim of prayer handed down to us, he may seem to ask, yet he does not ask as he ought. In truth, then, he does not ask, and therefore he will not receive.

Thus he intends to misuse what he wishes to receive, and he does not receive it precisely because God is compassionate.

The reward for labors in virtue consists in dispassion and knowledge. These lead into the Kingdom of Heaven, just as passions and ignorance lead into eternal torment. Therefore, to the one who seeks dispassion and knowledge for human glory rather than for their inward goodness, Scripture says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask not for good.”

Therefore the hierarch of God asks for what has been promised by God and loved by God, and this will certainly be granted. He shows his well-ordered state to the God who loves the good, and he makes clear to those present the gifts that await the venerable.

Some who think they ask do not receive. He anticipates the objections of those who contradict and ask badly for vain pleasures. But someone will say that certain people who ask for divine knowledge and the apprehension of the virtues do not receive them. It must be said to them that they were deemed worthy to receive the good things. Yet because they boast of them, and rejoicing in praises belongs to lovers of pleasure, these things are not given to them.

Those also ask wrongly who remain in sin, do not renounce it in the least, and shamelessly beg the Lord to forgive it.

Sin: prayer for what is vain, or directly contrary to God.

Some even bring a prayer directly opposed to God: "You do not receive, because you ask wrongly."

For example, one man, instead of forgetting an offense, prays to God that his offender be punished. Another has committed theft and does not set before God a firm intention to abandon this vice. He prays only that he be hidden from men and from judgment.

Others ask for something permissible, but with an impure intention. They may ask for wealth for a luxurious and merry life.

No. This is an undoubted defect in our worship of God: always to pray for earthly and vain things alone. It is still more sinful to ask God for what is impure in itself, or for something intended for an impure purpose.

"You ask and do not receive," and so on. That is, even if you turn to God in prayer, your prayer remains vain. You do not receive what you ask in prayer, because you do not ask for good.

The object of your prayer does not concern what could bring you good, such as the destruction of the causes of your enmity and conflicts. Rather, it concerns the satisfaction of your desires (Jas 4:1), which produce these enmities and conflicts.

Since this object is impure and unworthy both of God, to whom such prayers are raised, and of the Christian who prays, such prayers remain fruitless. They cannot be heard and fulfilled by God: "You ask and do not receive."

After speaking of the need to preserve peace, the Apostle James now examines the causes that disturb the peace of the Christians to whom he writes.

Earlier James had already spoken of evil desires as arising from personal temptations (see Jas 1:14). Here he explains that sins against neighbors also arise from the same source: envy, enmity, quarrels, fights, and murder.

From malice also comes the fruitlessness of prayers. Such prayers consist chiefly in requests for earthly goods, not for the higher spiritual goods with which a Christian should be especially and wholly filled. Therefore he should pray above all for them.

In chapter 4 the Apostle shows the fruits of preaching demonic wisdom in public life.

The preachers of this wisdom flatter men's low desires. They implant love for earthly goods and instill the proud thought that man, by his own efforts and without God's help, can attain happiness and prosperity.

Yet bitter reality most often destroys this self-confident and frivolous theory of arranging earthly prosperity without mercy. As a result, enmity and conflict arise in people's mutual relations.

Whoever does not strive to cleanse his path to God from moral stumbling blocks diminishes for himself the hope of attaining what he desires.

Habitual thoughts of passions and vices follow after his prayer. They disturb it, weaken it, and hinder it.

An unpacified conscience deprives prayer of freedom and boldness before God. An uncleansed heart asks goods from the heavenly Father not in order to use them according to His will, but to satisfy its passionate and biased desires more freely.

The apostolic word portrays such worshipers and the fate of their prayer in severe strokes: "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, that you may spend it on your pleasures."

When the Savior says, “Ask, and it will be given to you” (Mt 7:7), and also makes His words trustworthy by saying, “Everyone who asks receives” (Mt 7:8), one wants to examine how some who ask are not heard when they ask to receive what they wished to have. To this one must say that whoever approaches what he asks for in the proper way, including the means connected with attaining what he desires, receives everything he asked to be given. But if someone is found to demand beyond the content of the request presented, he is not believed to ask only what is fitting. Therefore he does not receive what he asks.