Jas 4:2

“You quarrel and fight, and you do not have because you do not ask. You quarrel, he says, and fight for temporal glory, and you are not able to obtain this, precisely because you do not care to ask the Lord, so that he himself might bestow upon you whatever is beneficial. For if you were to ask him with pious intention, he would grant you both the earthly necessities for temporal use and the heavenly goods for eternal enjoyment.”

“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.”

“Ye lust--A different Greek word from that in Jam 4:1. "Ye desire"; literally, "ye set your mind (or heart) on" an object. have not--The lust of desire does not ensure the actual possession. Hence "ye kill" (not as Margin, without any old authority, "envy") to ensure possession. Not probably in the case of professing Christians of that day in a literal sense, but "kill and envy" (as the Greek for "desire to have" should be translated), that is, harass and oppress through envy [DRUSIUS]. Compare Zac 11:5, "slay"; through envy, hate, and desire to get out of your way, and so are "murderers" in God's eyes [ESTIUS]. If literal murder [ALFORD] were meant, I do not think it would occur so early in the series; nor had Christians then as yet reached so open criminality. In the Spirit's application of the passage to all ages, literal killing is included, flowing from the desire to possess so David and Ahab. There is a climax: "Ye desire," the individual lust for an object; "ye kill and envy," the feeling and action of individuals against individuals; "ye fight and war," the action of many against many. ye have not, because ye ask not--God promises to those who pray, not to those who fight. The petition of the lustful, murderous, and contentious is not recognized by God as prayer. If ye prayed, there would be no "wars and fightings." Thus this last clause is an answer to the question, Jam 4:1, "Whence come wars and fightings?"”

“You desire and do not have; you kill and covet, and cannot obtain; you fight and wage war, "You desire and do not have," etc. According to position and elevation, it proceeds from the position, being removed due to the absurdity. The absurdity, due to the pleasures, is expected to be the underlying cause of what is contemplated in the position. For both desire ends in the perfection of pleasures, and murder, rivalry, and similarly strife and war are not good: therefore, neither do those things follow whose cause they affect. It should be noted at this point that he speaks of murder and war not in a bodily sense: for it would be serious even to think about robbers; much less, therefore, about those who were somewhat faithful and approached the Lord. But as it seems to me, those are said to kill who, through these reckless attempts, destroy their own soul, which is why war is also against piety for them. And just as in the course of the text he calls adulterers and adulteresses, not because they are entirely such, but because they corrupt divine and rightly established precepts by turning to other illegitimate things: for no one would tolerate a whoremonger as a teacher, even if he were more entangled in filth than a pig: so he speaks of murder and wars not in a bodily sense, but concerning the soul,”