Theophylact of Ohrid, on Jas 4:2

“You covet, and have not: you kill, and envy, and can not obtain. You contend and war, and you have not, because you ask not.”

“Here he persuades through affirmation and negation. However, the affirmation is passed over in silence as being indecent. The indecency lies in the fact that what is implied in the affirmation constitutes the kindling of desire, for desire ends in the fulfillment of sensual pleasure. Murder and envy, strife and enmity are not good deeds, which is why those who pursue them do not attain what they strive for. One should, however, know that here he speaks not of bodily murder and enmity, for this is hard to hear even concerning robbers, much less concerning believers (though some) who come to the Lord. But it seems to me that he calls murderers those who kill their own souls by such undertakings, on account of which enmity against piety also arises in them. So too further on (Jas. 4:4) he called them adulterers and adulteresses — not, of course, those who are such in reality, but those who sin against the Divine commandments by mixing in their own inventions, for no one would tolerate a teacher who is a fornicator, even if the person himself were filthier than a swine. So too he speaks of murders and wars not as bodily, but as spiritual.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.