Theologian Douglas Mo Argues That the Author of James Is Displaying Jealous, Bitter Partisanship

Jacob, the author of james has had some very strongly worded warnings about things like greed and idolatry. But in this passage he adds an interesting dimension to his list of gripes that kind of gets lost in translation. See the greek word that my bible translates to english as selfish ambition, is erdithea. And it's relatively rare greek word. The only place it shows up before the new testament is in the writing of aristotle,. He used it to refer to the corruption and greed of partisan politicians.