Enrolled in the Devil's School James 4:1-12

4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jas 4:1–12). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.Human passion in the world is expressed in various ways

In physical desires

1 John 2:15–16 ESV

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

See also Ex 20:17; Pr 27:20; Lk 12:15; Lk 21:34; Jas 4:4; 2 Pe 2:18–20

In indulgence

Jas 5:1; Jas 5:5

See also Job 21:7–13; Ps 73:2–3; 2 Ti 4:10

In intellectual pursuits

Colossians 2:8 ESV

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

See also Ga 4:3–5; Eph 2:3

In a weak will

Exodus 23:2 ESV

You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice,

See also Job 31:34;

Though remaining in the world, believers are not of the world

John 17:6–19 ESV

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Believers are to renounce the passions of the world Rom.6:17-19

17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ro 6:17–19). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Through a renewed mind

Romans 12:2 ESV

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

See also Ga 1:4; Eph 4:23; Col 3:5–10

Through obedience

1 Peter 1:14–15 ESV

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,

See also 2 Co 10:2–5; Ga 5:24; Ga 6:15; Eph 5:17; Tt 2:12; Jas 1:27; 2 Pe 1:4

Through having spiritual priorities

Luke 12:29–31 ESV

And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

See also Mt 10:39; Lk 14:26–27; Lk 17:33; Jn 12:24–26; 1 Ti 6:6

Through growing to maturity

1 Corinthians 3:1 ESV

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

See also Heb 5:12; Heb 6:1–3

The futility of worldly pursuits

They bring no lasting material gain

1 Timothy 6:7 ESV

for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.

See also Job 1:21; Ps 49:17; Ec 5:15; 1 Ti 6:17–19

They bring no spiritual gain

Mark 8:36–37 ESV

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?

See also Job 20:4–5; Ps 17:14; Lk 16:25–26