‘From where come wars and from where come squabblings among you? Do they not come from there, even from your pleasures that war in your members?'
He considers their wars and their squabbling and their belligerence with each other. From where, he asks, do they come? And then he answers his own question. They are the consequence of the wars within themselves, their wanting more and more of the pleasures and desires of the world, which, once having tasted, they cannot bear to be without. For those very pleasures are at war within every part of their bodies (‘their members') pressing them on into further conflict. We can compare here the fleshly desires that war against the soul (1 Peter 2:11). They want satisfaction at all costs as the battle rages within them. The picture is of people in turmoil within because of their determination to have their pleasures, as each one battles with everyone else in order to get what he himself wants. The language is that of the battlefield, but in most cases what is in mind is probably the local ‘battlefield' at work and in the household. For those who live like this there can be no peace.
The pleasures were no doubt of various kinds, for James does not specify them. They would include gaining the pleasure of recognition for its own sake, gaining pleasure in achieving status for reasons of personal vanity, gaining pleasure in getting their own way, gaining pleasure by getting revenge for imagined, or even real, slights, to say nothing of the more openly ‘sinful' pleasures of engaging in sex or seeking monetary enhancement by improper methods. All these could cause ‘wars and battles' among members of the congregation. And they are simply a few among many possibilities.