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Things to Avoid

What leads to [the unending] [a]quarrels and conflicts among you? Do they not come from your [hedonistic] desires that wage war in your [bodily] members [fighting for control over you]? You are jealous and covet [what others have] and [b]your lust goes unfulfilled; so you [c]murder. You are envious and cannot obtain [the object of your envy]; so you fight and battle. You do not have because you do not ask [it of God].(A) You ask [God for something] and do not receive it, because you ask [d]with wrong motives [out of selfishness or with an unrighteous agenda], so that [when you get what you want] you may spend it on your [hedonistic] desires. You adulteresses [disloyal sinners—flirting with the world and breaking your vow to God]! Do you not know that being the world’s friend [that is, loving the things of the world] is being God’s enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

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Footnotes

  1. James 4:1 Lit wars.
  2. James 4:2 Lit you do not have.
  3. James 4:2 Possibly a reference to Christ’s statement in Matt 5:22, or to actually doing something that results in someone’s death in order to take what he has.
  4. James 4:3 Lit wrongly.

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.

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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

Submit Yourselves to God

What causes fights and quarrels(A) among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle(B) within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill.(C) You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive,(D) because you ask with wrong motives,(E) that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

You adulterous(F) people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world(G) means enmity against God?(H) Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.(I)

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Footnotes

  1. James 4:4 An allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1.