Albert Barnes Commentary James 3:16

"For where jealousy and faction are, there is confusion and every vile deed." — James 3:16 (ASV)

For where envying and strife is, there is confusion. The marginal note reads: tumult or unquietness. Everything is unsettled and agitated. There is no mutual confidence; there is no union of plan and effort; there is no cooperation in promoting a common object; there is no stability in any plan; for a purpose, though for good, formed by one portion, is defeated by another.

And every evil work. No one who has observed the effects in a family or neighbourhood where a spirit of strife prevails can have any doubt about the truth of this. Love and harmony are, of course, banished; all happiness disappears; all prosperity is at an end. In place of the peaceful virtues which ought to prevail, there springs up every evil passion that tends to mar the peace of a community. Where this spirit prevails in a church, it is, of course, impossible to expect any progress in Divine things; and in such a church, any effort to do good is vain.

"The Spirit, like a peaceful dove,
Flies from the realms of noise and strife."