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You ask for it, but you do not get it, because you ask in a wrong way. You want to use it for yourselves and not for others.

You people promised God you would be true to him, but you did not stay true! Do you not know that if you love the world you hate God? Anyone who wants to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

The holy writings say, `God gave his Spirit to live in us. And that Spirit wants us for himself.' Do you think this means nothing?

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When you ask, you do not receive,(A) because you ask with wrong motives,(B) that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

You adulterous(C) people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world(D) means enmity against God?(E) Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.(F) Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us[b]?(G)

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Footnotes

  1. James 4:4 An allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1.
  2. James 4:5 Or that the spirit he caused to dwell in us envies intensely; or that the Spirit he caused to dwell in us longs jealously