Pride promotes strife:

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. 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.
Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
James 4:1-6


4:1 quarrels and conflicts among you. These are between people in the church, not internal conflict in individual people. “Quarrels” speaks of the conflict in general; “conflicts” of its specific manifestations. Discord in the church is not by God’s design (Jn 13:34, 35; 17:21; 2Co 12:20; Php 1:27), but results from the mix of tares (false believers) and wheat (truly redeemed people) that make up the church. pleasures. The Gr. word (from which the Eng. word “hedonism” derives) always has a negative connotation in the NT. The passionate desires for worldly pleasures that mark unbelievers (1:14; Eph 2:3; 2Ti 3:4; Jude 18) are the internal source of the external conflict in the church. Cf. 1:14, 15. your members. Not church members, but bodily members (see note on Ro 6:13). James, like Paul, uses “members” to speak of sinful, fallen human nature (cf. Ro 6:19; 7:5, 23). Unbelievers (who are in view here) fight (unsuccessfully) against the evil desires they cannot control.
4:2 murder. The ultimate result of thwarted desires. James had in mind actual murder, and the gamut of sins (hate, anger, bitterness) leading up to it. The picture is of unbelievers so driven by their uncontrollable evil desires that they will fight to the death to fulfill them. you do not ask. True joy, peace, happiness, meaning, hope, and fulfillment in life come only from God. Unbelievers, however, are unwilling to ask for them on His terms—they refuse to submit to God or acknowledge their dependence on Him.
4:3 wrong motives. This refers to acting in an evil manner, motivated by personal gratification and selfish desire. Unbelievers seek things for their own pleasures, not the honor and glory of God.
4:4 adulteresses. A metaphorical description of spiritual unfaithfulness (cf. Mt 12:39; 16:4; Mk 8:38). It would have been especially familiar to James’ Jewish readers, since the OT often describes unfaithful Israel as a spiritual harlot (cf. 2Ch 21:11, 13; Jer 2:20; 3:1, 6, 8, 9; Eze 16:26–29; Hos 1:2; 4:15; 9:1). James has in view professing Christians, outwardly associated with the church, but holding a deep affection for the evil world system. friendship. Appearing only here in the NT, the Gr. word describes love in the sense of a strong emotional attachment. Those with a deep and intimate longing for the things of the world give evidence that they are not redeemed (1Jn 2:15–17). world. See note on 1:27. hostility toward God. The necessary corollary to friendship with the world. The sobering truth that unbelievers are God’s enemies is taught throughout Scripture (cf. Dt 32:41–43; Pss 21:8; 68:21; 72:9; 110:1, 2; Is 42:13; Na 1:2, 8; Lk 19:27; Ro 5:10; 8:5–7; 1Co 15:25).
4:5 Scripture speaks. The quote that follows is not found as such in the OT; it is a composite of general OT teaching. jealously desires the Spirit. This difficult phrase is best understood by seeing the “Spirit” as a reference not to the Holy Spirit, but to the human spirit, and translating the phrase “jealously desires” in the negative sense of “lusts to envy.” James’ point is that an unbelieving person’s spirit (inner person) is bent on evil (cf. Ge 6:5; 8:21; Pr 21:10; Ecc 9:3; Jer 17:9; Mk 7:21–23). Those who think otherwise defy the biblical diagnosis of fallen human nature; and those who live in worldly lusts give evidence that their faith is not genuine (cf. Ro 8:5–11; 1Co 2:14).
4:6 greater grace. The only ray of hope in man’s spiritual darkness is the sovereign grace of God, which alone can rescue man from his propensity to lust for evil things. That God gives “greater grace” shows that His grace is greater than the power of sin, the flesh, the world, and Satan (cf. Ro 5:20). The OT quote (from Pr 3:34; cf. 1Pe 5:5) reveals who obtains God’s grace—the humble, not the proud enemies of God. The word “humble” does not define a special class of Christians, but encompasses all believers (cf. Is 57:15; 66:2; Mt 18:3, 4).


MacArthur, John: The MacArthur Study Bible : New American Standard Bible. Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006, S. Jas 4:1-6