James 4:1

πόθεν πόλεμοι καὶ πόθεν μάχαι ἐν ὑμῖν; The transition to this paragraph is immediately suggested by εἰρήνην (James 3:18). But the thought follows naturally on the whole preceding section, especially on the clause, εἰ δὲ ζῆλον πικρὸν ἔχετε, κ.τ.λ. (James 3:14).

πόλεμοι … μάχαι, bella et lites, V., unde pugnae et unde rixae in vobis, O.L. Both these expressions appear to refer to private contention rather than to international wars. The conjunction occurs in Homer: ἀεὶ γάρ τοι ἔρις τε φίλη πόλεμοί τε μάχαι τε (‘frays and feuds,’ Purves) Il. I. 177. So also πολεμίζειν ἠδὲ μάχεσθαι, Il. III. 435, where the scholiast notes: μάχεται μέν τις καὶ λόγοις … πολεμεῖν δὲ λόγοις οὐ λέγεται. There is no etymological objection to this sense of private quarrel, the root πελ. meaning to strike, hence πλήσσω, πέλας, πλησίον.

Beyschlag distinguishes: “πόλεμος der chronische Unfrieden, μάχη der acute.”

ἐκ denotes the remoter and ultimate source, ἀπό the nearer and immediate source—quarrels and contentions may be traced back to pleasures as their ultimate cause.

τῶν στρατευομένων, that are campaigning in your members. ἡδοναί are like soldiers on the march; each man wishes his own ἡδοναί—here equivalent to ἐπιθυμίαι—to gain the victory; hence the ‘frays and feuds.’ For στρατεύεσθαι comp. Luke 3:14; 1 Corinthians 9:7; 1 Peter 2:11 : in this last passage the σαρκικαὶ ἐπιθυμίαι are described as an external force at war with the soul: τῶν σαρκικῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν αἵτινες στρατεύονται κατὰ τῆς ψυχῆς. Comp. Plat. Phaedo p. 66 c, καὶ γὰρ πολέμους καὶ στάσεις καὶ μάχας οὐδὲν ἄλλο παρέχει ἢ τὸ σῶμα καὶ αἱ τούτου ἐπιθυμίαι. Cic. de Fin. I. 13 Ex cupiditatibus odia, discidia, discordiae, seditiones, bella nascuntur.

ἡδονή in N.T. always in a bad sense as a danger to the spiritual life, Luke 8:14; Titus 3:3; 2 Peter 2:13.