Warning Against Worldliness

4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions^[a] are ^(A)at war within you?^[b]

¹¹ Beloved, I urge you ^(A)as sojourners and exiles ^(B)to abstain from the passions of the flesh, ^(C)which wage war against your soul.

²³ but I see in my members ^(A)another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

¹⁷ For ^(A)the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, ^(B)to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

¹⁴ But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

¹⁶ These are grumblers, malcontents, ^(A)following their own sinful desires; ^(B)they are loud-mouthed boasters, ^(C)showing favoritism to gain advantage.

A Call to Persevere

¹⁷ But you must ^(D)remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ They^[a] said to you, ^(E)“In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.”

Do Not Love the World

^15 (A)Do not love the world or the things in the world. ^(B)If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—^(C)the desires of the flesh and ^(D)the desires of the eyes and pride of life^[a]—is not from the Father but is from the world. ¹⁷ And ^(E)the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask ^(A)wrongly, to spend it on your passions.