1 Pride Promotes Strife Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure Rom. 7:23; (Gal. 5:17); 1 Pet. 2:11 that war in your members?
2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
3 Job 27:8, 9 You ask and do not receive, (Ps. 66:18) because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that Rom. 8:7;1 John 2:15 friendship with the world is enmity with God? Gal. 1:4 Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, Gen. 6:5 “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: Job 22:29; Ps. 138:6; Prov. 3:34; Matt. 23:12;1 Pet. 5:5 “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
7 Humility Cures Worldliness Therefore submit to God. (Eph. 4:27; 6:11); 1 Pet. 5:8 Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 2 Chr. 15:2; Zech. 1:3; Mal. 3:7; Heb. 7:19 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Job 17:9; Is. 1:16;1 Tim. 2:8 Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and Jer. 4:14; James 3:17;1 Pet. 1:22;1 John 3:3 purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Matt. 5:4 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Job 22:29; Luke 14:11; 18:14;1 Pet. 5:6 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
11 Do Not Judge a Brother 2 Cor. 12:20; Eph. 4:31; James 5:9;1 Pet. 2:1–3 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother (Matt. 7:1–5); Rom. 14:4 and judges his brother, speaks evil of 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 one Lawgiver, (Matt. 10:28) who is able to save and to destroy. Rom. 14:4 Who are you to judge another?
13 Do Not Boast About Tomorrow Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;
14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? Job 7:7; Ps. 102:3;1 Pet. 1:24 It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
15 Instead you ought to say, Acts 18:21;1 Cor. 4:19 “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
16 But now you boast in your arrogance. 1 Cor. 5:6 All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, (Luke 12:47); John 9:41;2 Pet. 2:21 to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.