NOTES for Иак 4:1-17
James does not specify from whom those who ask wrongly ask and do not receive, but we may compare these words with what he wrote at the beginning of his epistle about people who turn to the Lord not with complete faith, but with divided minds. Even today one may hear the question: why do we not receive what we pray for? James’s answer is simple: consider whether you ask in faith and whether you always ask for what is good for you. Is your prayer divided and weakened by lack of faith? Of course, much that belongs to the higher world cannot be explained “in human terms,” and we should not imitate Job’s friends, whose reasoning was logical and plausible but wrong. Yet sometimes we must still reflect on James’s words.
James also speaks of the inadmissibility of friendship with the world, and these words have often been understood literally. But we must withdraw not from the world that the Lord created and loved, and into which He sent His Son, but from the sin that has afflicted and enslaved the world. It turns out to be simple to resist sin: one need only submit to God and, with His help, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. This is true, yet for some reason what is simplest and most accessible to us proves very difficult. Perhaps this is because we are afraid to draw near to God, since doing so requires us to reject many tendencies that He hates and that bind us to the sinful world...