Considering the context,I think James 4:5 is actually speaking of a bad spirit, not the holy spirit. A spirit of envy.
Good observation. There are two ways to view this text. Is James referring to our spirit or His Holy Spirit? In other words, is it the spirit that God has caused to live in us, namely our human spirit, which tends to become intensely jealous? Or is James referring to the Holy Spirit? Of course, the Bible teaches both elsewhere but which is it here in James 4:5? Biblical scholars mostly say that James is referring to the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit is jealous in the sense of being concerned and involved in our well-being in our faith. I tend to agree since that verse in the context of the next verse, which says:
But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
The "He" here refers to the Spirit in the previous verse, Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?.
Having said all that, in the previous verse, the original Greek uses the following words for "yearns" and "jealously" thus:
ἐπιποθεῖ (epipothei) yearns φθόνον (φθόνον) envy
Which doesn't really in and of itself resolve the issue. I think we can say this is an example where the meaning is not conveyed clearly enough. Thank you for bringing your thoughts to my attention. I will study this some more if I can come up with a more definitive solution.
