For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.  (17) But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy.  (18) Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.  (4:1) Where do wars and fights come from among you?  Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?  (2) You lust and do not have.  You murder and covet and cannot obtain.  You fight and war.  (3) Yet you do not have because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

This letter was written by James, the half brother of Jesus Christ.  James was the head of the Christian church in Jerusalem and in our verses today, is addressing what appear to be serious quarrels and conflicts in the early church.  James reminds us that we are new creatures in Christ – we are reborn – but the enemy is within us.  As long as we live in our bodies we fight our sinful nature.

James writes earlier in this letter that all good and perfect gifts comes from God and we are not to blame God for our temptation or for our sin.  Quarrels and conflict occur when pleasures of this world dominate our lives.  We will never get satisfaction when we strive for something temporal or fleeting:  all fades, all dies.  We must not allow the body to dominate or it will swallow the soul and extinguish it.

James is speaking of the path of sin and warns us to be vigilant and honest – to examine our motives and accept responsibility for our actions.  We must realize that there is no sin of which the saint (saved) is incapable – think of David – a man after God’s own heart – who sinned with Bathsheba and murdered her husband.  How could this have happened to a man who lived for God – if it could happen to him it could happen to any of us.

We are reborn and as a new man or woman, we want Christ and nothing else will do.