James 4:1

James 4:1 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
• New International Version (NIV)What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?
• English Standard Version (ESV)What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
• New King James Version (NKJV)Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

Context of James 4:1

Whence [come] wars and whence fightings among you? [Is it] not thence, — from your pleasures, which war in your members? 2Ye lust and have not: ye kill and are full of envy, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war; ye have not because ye ask not. 3Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask evilly, that ye may consume [it] in your pleasures.

James 4:1 word by word

Πόθεν πόλεμοι καὶ πόθεν μάχαι ἐν ὑμῖν; οὐκ ἐντεῦθεν, ἐκ τῶν ἡδονῶν ὑμῶν τῶν στρατευομένων ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν ὑμῶν;Read the interlinear

• warsπόλεμοςpolēmos · warG4171
• membersμέλοςmelos · memberG3196

Cross-references for James 4:1

• James 3:14but if ye have bitter emulation and strife in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.
• James 1:14But every one is tempted, drawn away, and enticed by his own lust;
• Genesis 4:5and upon Cain, and on his offering, he did not look. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.
• Jeremiah 17:9The heart is deceitful above all things, and incurable; who can know it?
• Matthew 15:19For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies;
• Mark 7:21For from within, out of the heart of men, go forth evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
• John 8:44Ye are of the devil, as [your] father, and ye desire to do the lusts of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks falsehood, he speaks of what is his own; for he is a liar and its father:
• Romans 8:7Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God; for neither indeed can it be:
• 1 Timothy 6:4he is puffed up, knowing nothing, but sick about questions and disputes of words, out of which arise envy, strife, injurious words, evil suspicions,
• 1 Peter 1:14as children of obedience, not conformed to [your] former lusts in your ignorance;
• 1 Peter 2:11Beloved, I exhort [you], as strangers and sojourners, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
• 1 Peter 4:2no longer to live the rest of [his] time in [the] flesh to men's lusts, but to God's will.
• 2 Peter 2:18For [while] speaking great highflown words of vanity, they allure with [the] lusts of [the] flesh, by dissoluteness, those who have just fled those who walk in error,
• 2 Peter 3:3knowing this first, that there shall come at [the] close of the days mockers with mocking, walking according to their own lusts,
• 1 John 2:15Love not the world, nor the things in the world. If any one love the world, the love of the Father is not in him;
• Jude 1:16These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their lusts; and their mouth speaks swelling words, admiring persons for the sake of profit.

Commentaries on James 4:1

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 1From whence come wars and fightings - About the time in which St. James wrote, whether we follow the earlier or the later date of this epistle, we find, according to the accounts given by Josephus, Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. 17, etc., that the Jews, under pretense of defending their religion, and procuring that liberty to which they believed themselves entitled, made various insurrections in Judea against the Romans, which occasioned much bloodshed and misery…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 1From whence come wars and fightings among you? - Margin, “brawlings.” The reference is to strifes and contentions of all kinds; and the question, then, as it is now, was an important one, what was their source or origin? The answer is given in the succeeding part of the verse. Some have supposed that the apostle refers here to the contests and seditions existing among the Jews, which afterwards broke out in rebellion against the Roman authority, and which…Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 1Here are cautions against corrupt affections, and love of this world, which is enmity to God. (1-10) Exhortations to undertake no affairs of life, without constant regard to the will and providence of God. (11-17) Verses 1-10 Since all wars and fightings come from the corruptions of our own hearts, it is right to mortify those lusts that war in the members. Wordly and fleshly lusts are distempers, which will not allow content or satisfaction. Sinful…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1Conflicts and quarrels (literally wars and battles): James uses military imagery to show that their own evil desires cause the battles among church members. These desires are at war within themselves. James uses the Greek word for passions again in 4:3 (translated as “pleasures”). This frames the entire paragraph and show the source of conflict and unanswered prayer (Luke 8:14; Titus 3:3).Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1-171. whence--The cause of quarrels is often sought in external circumstances, whereas internal lusts are the true origin. wars, &c.--contrasted with the "peace" of heavenly wisdom. "Fightings" are the active carrying on of "wars." The best authorities have a second "whence" before "fightings." Tumults marked the era before the destruction of Jerusalem when James wrote. He indirectly alludes to these. The members are the first seat of war; thence it passes…Read the comment

Topics related to James 4:1

• Ambition
• Lust
• Sin
• Strife

In the dictionaries

• Adulterer
• Amiss
• Consume
• Enmity
• Flee
• Hence
• Lust
• Resist
• Sin
• Unruly

Commentaries on James 4

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Illustrated New Testament
• Burkitt’s Expository Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Family Bible Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• The People’s New Testament
• Robertson’s Word Pictures
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings