Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
Parallel translations
- WEB Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?
- KJV From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
- BSB What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?
- NASB What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is the source not your pleasures that wage war in your body’s parts?
- NLT What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Conflicts among believers spring from selfish desires battling within. The root of outward quarrels is the disordered cravings of the heart.
Overview
James traces wars and fightings in the community back to internal lusts that wage war in our members. The problem is not merely circumstantial but spiritual: covetous pleasures fight for mastery within. This diagnosis recalls Paul's account of the flesh warring against the Spirit (Galatians 5:17) and points to the deeper heart-renewal that only the gospel supplies.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 23
- 1 Pet 2:11Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
- Gal 5:17For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire.
- Rom 7:23but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.
- Jas 1:14But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.
- Rom 8:7because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.
- 1 Jn 2:15–17Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him.
- Jer 17:9The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
- Jude 1:16–18These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts (and their mouth speaks proud things), showing respect of persons to gain advantage.
- 1 Pet 1:14as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance,
- Col 3:5Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry;
- Jas 3:14–18But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and don’t lie against the truth.
- 2 Pet 3:3knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts,
- Mark 7:21–23For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,
- Jas 4:3You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.
- Titus 3:9but shun foolish questionings, genealogies, strife, and disputes about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.
- 2 Pet 2:18For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;
- Gen 4:5–8but he didn’t respect Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry, and the expression on his face fell.
- Titus 3:3For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
- Matt 15:19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.
- 1 Pet 4:2–3that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
- 1 Tim 6:4–10he is conceited, knowing nothing, but obsessed with arguments, disputes, and word battles, from which come envy, strife, insulting, evil suspicions,
- Rom 7:5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.
- John 8:44You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father.
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