^15 (A)Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.”

¹⁶ So Jesus said, ^(B)“Are you also still without understanding? ¹⁷ Do you not yet understand that ^(C)whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? ¹⁸ But ^(D)those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. ^19 (E)For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. ²⁰ These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

⁸ But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, ^(A)full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made ^(B)in the ^[a]similitude of God. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. ¹¹ Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? ¹² Can a ^(C)fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? ^[b]Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

Heavenly Versus Demonic Wisdom

^13 (D)Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have ^(E)bitter envy and ^[c]self-seeking in your hearts, ^(F)do not boast and lie against the truth. ^15 (G)This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. ¹⁶ For ^(H)where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. ¹⁷ But ^(I)the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, ^(J)without partiality ^(K)and without hypocrisy. ^18 (L)Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Pride Promotes Strife

4 Where do ^[a]wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure ^(A)that war in your members? ² You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and ^[b]war. ^[c]Yet you do not have because you do not ask. ^3 (B)You ask and do not receive, ^(C)because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. ^4 [d]Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that ^(D)friendship with the world is enmity with God? ^(E)Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.