Righteousness is an attitude that God puts in us that empowers us to treat ourselves and the people we associate with in a kind and loving manner. Getting things through our own efforts can take our attention away from people and put it on the demanding efforts of getting those things.

James 3:18 (NIV) Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

As long as our eyes are on God, we can be peacemakers who reap a harvest of righteousness. The moment our eyes get off of the things of God and His righteousness, an attitude of greed, envy, covetousness, and lust can start to dominate our emotions. This causes us to be motivated by a whole different set of goals and desires. This is described in the next set of verses.

James 4:1-4 (NIV) What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

This is a whole different type of hungering and thirsting. This fills us with things that take the place of the Kingdom and righteousness of God. Our attention is on the kingdoms of this world and the unrighteous activities it has.