1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions areyRom. 7:23; 1 Pet. 2:11 at war within you? 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 askz[1 John 5:14] wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 aIsa. 54:5; Jer. 2:2 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?bJohn 15:19; 1 John 2:15; [Matt. 6:24] Therefore 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 spiritc1 Cor. 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16 that he has made to dwell in us ”? 6 ButdIsa. 54:7, 8; See Matt. 13:12 he gives more grace. Therefore it says,e1 Pet. 5:5; Cited from Prov. 3:34 (Gk.) “God opposes the proud, butdIsa. 54:7, 8; See Matt. 13:12 gives grace to the humble. ” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God.f1 Pet. 5:8, 9; [Eph. 4:27; 6:11] Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 g2 Chr. 15:2; Lam. 3:57; Zech. 1:3; Mal. 3:7; [Luke 15:20] Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.hIsa. 1:16 Cleanse your hands, you sinners, andiJer. 4:14 purify your hearts,jch. 1:8 you double-minded. 9 k[Matt. 5:4] Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 lver. 6; Isa. 57:15; [Luke 1:52]; See Matt. 23:12 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11 m2 Cor. 12:20; 1 Pet. 2:1; [ch. 5:9] Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother ornSee Matt. 7:1 judges 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 onlyoIsa. 33:22 one lawgiver andpch. 5:9 judge, he who is able to save andqMatt. 10:28 to destroy. ButrRom. 14:4 who are you to judge your neighbor?
13 Come now, you who say,sProv. 27:1; Luke 12:18-20 “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? FortPs. 102:3; [Job 7:7] you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say,uSee Acts 18:21 “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. ” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance.v[1 Cor. 5:6] All such boasting is evil. 17 w[Luke 12:47, 48; 2 Pet. 2:21]; See John 9:41 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.