Jam 4 | ESV | STEP | What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you ? Is it not this , that your passions are at war within you ?

1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions ^{▼▼Greek pleasures; also verse 3} are ^bat war within you? ^{▼▼Greek in your members} 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask ^dwrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 ^eYou adulterous people! ^{▼▼Greek You adulteresses!} Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? ^gTherefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit ^hthat he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But ⁱhe gives more grace. Therefore it says, ^j“God opposes the proud but ^kgives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. ^lResist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 ^mDraw near to God, and he will draw near to you. ⁿCleanse your hands, you sinners, and ^opurify your hearts, ^pyou double-minded. 9 ^qBe wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 ^rHumble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 ^sDo not speak evil against one another, brothers. ^{▼▼Or brothers and sisters} The one who speaks against a brother or ^ujudges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only ^vone lawgiver and ^wjudge, he who is able to save and ^xto destroy. But ^ywho are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting About Tomorrow

13 Come now, you who say, ^z“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For ^aayou are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, ^ab“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. ^acAll such boasting is evil. 17 ^adSo whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.