James 4:1-4

Passions and Pride

4:1 Where do the conflicts and where ¹  do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, ²  from your passions that battle inside you? ³  4:2 You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask; 4:3 you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions.

4:4 Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? ⁴  So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.

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

[4:1]  ² tn Grk “from here.”

[4:1]  ³ tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”

[4:4]  ⁴ tn Grk “is hostility toward God.”