James 4
1 Whence [are] fights and [whence are] contentions among you? [is]n't [it] therefore out [of your] pleasures making war among your members? 2 You desire, and you have not; you murder and burn with envy, and are not able to be obtaining, you quarrel and you fight. You have not because you are not asking1 . 3 You ask1 and do not receive because you ask evil-ly in order that you squander in your pleasures. 4 Adulterers, don't you know that the philia-[friendship] of the world is enmity of God? Whoever therefore wishes to be [a] philia-[friend] of the world makes himself hateful of God. 5 Or do you suppose that to no purpose the scripture says: With envy he desires the spirit which he caused to dwell in you. 6 But he gives [even] greater grace, because it says: God opposes [the] arrogant, but he gives grace to [the] humble. 7 Therefore be subject to God, and oppose the devil, and [he] will flee from you. 8 Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Cleanse [your] hands, sinners, and purify [your] hearts, doubleminded. 9 Suffer distress and mourn and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning and joy into dejection. 10 Be humbled before [the] Lord, and he will exalt you. 11 Do not speak evil of one another, brothers. The [one] speaking evil of [a] brother or judging his brother speaks evil of [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 one lawgiver and judge, the [one] able to save and to destroy; but who are you, the [one] judging his neighbor?13 Come now, O [those] saying: Today or tomorrow we will proceed into this city and will spend [a] year there and will trade and make [a] profit; 14 who do not know of tomorrow, of what sort [will be] your zoe-life2 . For you are [a] vapor appearing for [a] little [while] and then vanishing. 15 Instead you be saying, If the Lord wishes, we will zoe-live2 and will do this or that. 16 But now you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is wicked3 . 17 Therefore to the [one] knowing to be doing [a] good [thing] and not doing it, to him it is sin.
1AITEO "ay-TEH-oh" (αιτεω) "request", "demand", "beg" something for oneself. Far from humbly requesting—it's more like 'demanding'. Jesus uses AITEO only of the prayer of others, not of His own (cf. John.16:26)—and not requesting things for Himself, only for others. AITEO seems to suppose a lesser degree of intimacy than EROTAO (ερωταω), hence AITEO is used of the requests of the disciples to God, but EROTAO of the requests of the disciples to Jesus, and of those of Jesus to the Father ( John.14:16). AITEO is demanding/begging/pleading, EROTAO is polite and friendlier. Both AITEO and EROTAO occur in John.16:26.
2from ZOE "ZOH-ay" (ζωη)—Life 'collectively', interdependent, interconnected. Although it means 'life' in the conventional sense (for example: Matt.9:18, Matt.27:63, Luke.2:36, Acts.25:24, Rom.7:2, 2Cor.1:8, 1Thes.4:17, 1Tim.5:10, Rev.19:20), Jesus uses ZOE exclusively of 'life eternal' (with the possible exceptions of Luke.15:13, Luke.16:25). The other N.T. writers use ZOE in both senses—temporal and eternal, generally clear from the context. The Father is the 'zoe-living God' (see Matt.16:16). The Septuagint (LXX) in Gen.2:7 has "...[God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of zoe-life, and the man became a zoe-living psyche-life" (and see 1Cor.15:45); and Gen.3:20 (LXX) "And Adam called his wife's name ZOE, because she was the mother of all zoe-living." Contrast PSYCHE (ψυχη): an individual manifestation of life/consciousness. See John.12:25 where both ZOE and PSYCHE occur. Greek also has the word BIOS (βιoς ) for 'life' in the sense of biological processes.
3PONEROS (πoνηρoς ) here. The Greek word KAKOS (κακoς ) is always translated `evil', PONEROS is usually translated as `wicked' although occasionally as `bad'; it can also mean 'diseased', 'sickly' and is thus translated where appropriate. Like KAKOS, PONEROS also means `evil', but the harm that evil does is more in view, where KAKOS is more `evil as evil'.