Word Information
Word: Kakōs (Gk)
English: Badly
Source: Strong’s Concordance
Author: James Strong
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4:3
Definition
- amiss, badly, grievously
From kakos; badly (physically or morally) — amiss, diseased, evil, grievously, miserably, sick, sore.
Preachers have interpreted the scriptural statement, “You have not because you ask not” (James 4:2) as an explanation for why congregants don’t have the house, car, money, or other earthly providence they want – they just aren’t asking ‘diligently’ enough.
However, the next verse states the true reason people don’t get what they want: they ask for things that satisfy an earthly and temporal lust (James 4:3).
James 4:1-4
Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
The word ‘kakos’ is most often translated ‘sick’, ‘diseased’, etc. in the Scriptures – an apt description for fleshly desires that roar against God’s will.
Romans 8:5-8
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law-indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
1 John 5:14-15
And this is the boldness we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of Him.
Sizzling Sunday: 30th April 2023
Sizzling Sunday 037
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