Galatians 5:15

5:15 However, if you continually bite and devour one another, ¹  beware that you are not consumed ²  by one another.

Galatians 5:21

5:21 envying, ³  murder, ⁴  drunkenness, carousing, ⁵  and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!

Galatians 5:26

5:26 Let us not become conceited, ⁶  provoking ⁷  one another, being jealous ⁸  of one another.

Philippians 2:3

2:3 Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition ⁹  or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself.

James 3:14-16

3:14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfishness in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth. 3:15 Such ¹⁰  wisdom does not come ¹¹  from above but is earthly, natural, ¹²  demonic. 3:16 For where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is disorder and every evil practice.

James 4:5

4:5 Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, ¹³  “The spirit that God ¹⁴  caused ¹⁵  to live within us has an envious yearning”? ¹⁶ 

James 4:1

Passions and Pride

4:1 Where do the conflicts and where ¹⁷  do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, ¹⁸  from your passions that battle inside you? ¹⁹ 

James 2:1-2

Prejudice and the Law of Love

2:1 My brothers and sisters, ²⁰  do not show prejudice ²¹  if you possess faith ²²  in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. ²³  2:2 For if someone ²⁴  comes into your assembly ²⁵  wearing a gold ring and fine clothing, and a poor person enters in filthy clothes,

[5:15]  ¹ tn That is, “if you are harming and exploiting one another.” Paul’s metaphors are retained in most modern translations, but it is possible to see the meanings of δάκνω and κατεσθίω (daknw and katesqiw, L&N 20.26 and 88.145) as figurative extensions of the literal meanings of these terms and to translate them accordingly. The present tenses here are translated as customary presents (“continually…”).

[5:15]  ² tn Or “destroyed.”

[5:21]  ³ tn This term is plural in Greek (as is “murder” and “carousing”), but for clarity these abstract nouns have been translated as singular.

[5:21]  ⁴ tc ‡ φόνοι (fonoi, “murders”) is absent in such important mss as Ì⁴⁶ א B 33 81 323 945 pc sa, while the majority of mss (A C D F G Ψ 0122 0278 1739 1881 Ï lat) have the word. Although the pedigree of the mss which lack the term is of the highest degree, homoioteleuton may well explain the shorter reading. The preceding word has merely one letter difference, making it quite possible to overlook this term (φθόνοι φόνοι, fqonoi fonoi).

[5:21]  ⁵ tn Or “revelings,” “orgies” (L&N 88.287).

[5:26]  ⁶ tn Or “falsely proud.”

[5:26]  ⁷ tn Or “irritating.” BDAG 871 s.v. προκαλέω has “provoke, challenge τινά someone.”

[5:26]  ⁸ tn Or “another, envying one another.”

[2:3]  ⁹ tn Grk “not according to selfish ambition.” There is no main verb in this verse; the subjunctive φρονῆτε (fronhte, “be of the same mind”) is implied here as well. Thus, although most translations supply the verb “do” at the beginning of v. 3 (e.g., “do nothing from selfish ambition”), the idea is even stronger than that: “Don’t even think any thoughts motivated by selfish ambition.”

[3:15]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “This.”

[3:15]  ¹¹ tn Grk “come down”; “descend.”

[3:15]  ¹² tn Grk “soulish,” which describes life apart from God, characteristic of earthly human life as opposed to what is spiritual. Cf. 1 Cor 2:14; 15:44-46; Jude 19.

[4:5]  ¹³ tn Grk “vainly says.”

[4:5]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:5]  ¹⁵ tc The Byzantine text and a few other mss (P 33 Ï) have the intransitive κατῴκησεν (katwkhsen) here, which turns τὸ πνεῦμα (to pneuma) into the subject of the verb: “The spirit which lives within us.” But the more reliable and older witnesses (Ì⁷⁴ א B Ψ 049 1241 1739 al) have the causative verb, κατῴκισεν (katwkisen), which implies a different subject and τὸ πνεῦμα as the object: “The spirit that he causes to live within us.” Both because of the absence of an explicit subject and the relative scarcity of the causative κατοικίζω (katoikizw, “cause to dwell”) compared to the intransitive κατοικέω (katoikew, “live, dwell”) in biblical Greek (κατοικίζω does not occur in the NT at all, and occurs one twelfth as frequently as κατοικέω in the LXX), it is easy to see why scribes would replace κατῴκισεν with κατῴκησεν. Thus, on internal and external grounds, κατῴκισεν is the preferred reading.

[4:5]  ¹⁶ tn Interpreters debate the referent of the word “spirit” in this verse: (1) The translation takes “spirit” to be the lustful capacity within people that produces a divided mind (1:8, 14) and inward conflicts regarding God (4:1-4). God has allowed it to be in man since the fall, and he provides his grace (v. 6) and the new birth through the gospel message (1:18-25) to counteract its evil effects. (2) On the other hand the word “spirit” may be taken positively as the Holy Spirit and the sense would be, “God yearns jealously for the Spirit he caused to live within us.” But the word for “envious” or “jealous” is generally negative in biblical usage and the context before and after seems to favor the negative interpretation.

[4:1]  ¹⁷ tn The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.

[4:1]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “from here.”

[4:1]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”

[2:1]  ²⁰ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:1]  ²¹ tn Or “partiality.”

[2:1]  ²² tn Grk “do not have faith with personal prejudice,” with emphasis on the last phrase.

[2:1]  ²³ tn Grk “our Lord Jesus Christ of glory.” Here δόξης (doxhs) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[2:2]  ²⁴ tn The word for “man” or “individual” here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But as BDAG 79 s.v. 2 says, “equivalent to τὶς someone.”

[2:2]  ²⁵ tn Grk “synagogue.” Usually συναγωγή refers to Jewish places of worship (e.g., Matt 4:23, Mark 1:21, Luke 4:15, John 6:59). The word can be used generally to refer to a place of assembly, and here it refers specifically to a Christian assembly (BDAG 963 s.v. 2.b.).