[4:1] Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting within you.
[4:2] You want things, but you cannot have them, so you are ready to kill; you strongly desire things, but you cannot get them, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it.
[4:3] And when you ask, you do not receive it, because your motives are bad; you ask for things to use for your own pleasures.
[4:4] Unfaithful people! Don't you know that to be the world's friend means to be God's enemy? If you want to be the world's friend, you make yourself God's enemy.
[4:5] Don't think that there is no truth in the scripture that says, “The spirit that God placed in us is filled with fierce desires.”
[4:6] But the grace that God gives is even stronger. As the scripture says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
[4:7] So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will run away from you.
[4:8] Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites!
[4:9] Be sorrowful, cry, and weep; change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom!
[4:10] Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.