Proud or Humble

What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions(A) that wage war within you?[a] You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war.[b] You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.(B)

You adulterous people![c] Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 4:1 Or war in your members
  2. 4:2 Or You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and wage war.
  3. 4:4 Lit Adulteresses

Drawing Close to God

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

You adulterers![a] Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.

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Footnotes

  1. 4:4 Greek You adulteresses!