Bible Strands
James 4:1
What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — James addresses his dispersed Jewish-Christian audience, pivoting from practical instruction to a direct diagnosis of their internal strife. He speaks as a fellow sufferer issuing a challenge, not a detached teacher.
The words — πόλεμοι (polemoi) is the same word used for full-scale wars elsewhere in the New Testament; James applies it to interpersonal disputes, refusing to let the English soften the image. The rhetorical double "from where?" (πὸθεν… πὸθεν) frames the answer as already known to the hearer.
The thread — The internal-war motif recurs in 1 Peter 2:11 (desires warring against the soul), Galatians 5:17 (flesh and Spirit opposed), and Romans 7:23 (a law warring against the mind). James is the sharpest instance: he names the source and stops short of excusing it.
Why it lands — The verse redirects blame from the other party to the reader's own unexamined cravings. It demands self-interrogation before any conflict-resolution strategy can be honestly attempted.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Cross-references
- 1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.
- Galatians 5:17 For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want.
- Romans 7:23 But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.
- James 1:14 But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed.
- Romans 8:7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
- 1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
- Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
- Jude 1:16 These men are discontented grumblers, following after their own lusts; their mouths spew arrogance; they flatter others for their own advantage.
- Colossians 3:5 Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.
- 1 Peter 1:14 As obedient children, do not conform to the passions of your former ignorance.