ways of representing this but discussion will only be on this position since the New International Version is being used (Moo 140). The question arises ‘Is James really accusing the people of murder?’ Many scholars have asserted that he is accusing the people of murder. It has been alleged that the recent Jewish-Christian converts of James’ time were members of a radical Jewish Zealot movement that were known for killing prominent Romans and their collaborators as a policy of terror. James might have been warning them that what they were doing was not cohesive with there new life in Christ. Some have suggested the ‘you kill’ (phoneuete) be amended to ‘you are envious’ (phthoneite) but there are no textual justifications to support this change. Others say that murder is suggesting an attitude instead of an action. Murder should be taken in a literal sense as the sum total of where our selfish desires may lead. This is not to say that the people of James’ reference have gone this far, but it is to say that their actions of warring and fighting have them on the path to this action. James then provides insight into the human conflict. Verbal conflict, private violence, or national conflict can all be rooted in the desire to want what one does not have and in worldliness (Moo 141-142). Verse 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures (NIV).In this scripture, James makes the people aware of their need to pray with right motives. This statement may seem contradictory to the previous verse, but it is not because of the sense James is making the statement in light of the wrong motives of the people (Law 173). Jesus says in Matthew 7:7 that if you ask you will receive, but of course Jesus had in mind the kind of asking that was in line with the will of God, not that asking that was to be spent on the selfish p...
