James 4:1-12. Spiritual Warfare. Wisdom from heaven.

Wisdom from heaven James 4 1:12 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 1 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 2 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 3 James 4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. --”Weight of Glory” CS Lewis You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 4 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 5 James 4 Some things in life are mutually exclusive  Have a healthy body  Do drugs, smoke, etc.  Earn good grades  Skip classes  Go to the Olympics  Never train 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”[c] Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. 7 James 4 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor? 11 James 4 Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly. John 7:24 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Romans 2:1-3 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart -- Psalms 37:4 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. -- 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. 12 -- Philippians 2:12-13