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Whence [are] wars and fightings among you? not thence -- out of your passions, that are as soldiers in your members?

ye desire, and ye have not; ye murder, and are zealous, and are not able to attain; ye fight and war, and ye have not, because of your not asking;

ye ask, and ye receive not, because evilly ye ask, that in your pleasures ye may spend [it].

Adulterers and adulteresses! have ye not known that friendship of the world is enmity with God? whoever, then, may counsel to be a friend of the world, an enemy of God he is set.

Do ye think that emptily the Writing saith, `To envy earnestly desireth the spirit that did dwell in us,'

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Things to Avoid

[a]What is the source of quarrels and (A)conflicts among you? [b]Is the source not your pleasures that wage (B)war in [c]your body’s parts? You lust and do not have, so you (C)commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and (D)do not receive, because you ask [d]with the wrong motives, so that you may spend what you request [e]on your pleasures. You (E)adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with (F)the world is (G)hostility toward God? (H)Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture (I)says to no purpose, “[f]He [g]jealously desires (J)the Spirit whom He has made to dwell in us”?

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Footnotes

  1. James 4:1 Lit From where wars and from where fightings
  2. James 4:1 Lit Are they not from here, from your
  3. James 4:1 Lit your parts
  4. James 4:3 Lit wrongly
  5. James 4:3 Lit in
  6. James 4:5 Or The spirit which He has made to dwell in us lusts with envy
  7. James 4:5 Lit desires to jealousy