Friendship with the World

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? ² You want something and do not have it, so you commit murder. And you covet^[a] something and cannot obtain it, so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.^{(A) 4} Adulterers!^[b] 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.^{(B) 5} Or do you suppose that the scripture speaks to no purpose? Does the spirit that God caused to dwell^[c] in us desire envy?^{(C) 6} But God gives all the more grace; therefore it says,

⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.^{(E) 8} Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.^{(F) 9} Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.^(G)