James 4
Pride Promotes Strife
Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure athat war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 aYou ask and do not receive, bbecause you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that afriendship with the world is enmity with God? bWhoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, a“The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
a“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
Humility Cures Worldliness
7 Therefore submit to God. aResist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 aDraw near to God and He will draw near to you. bCleanse your hands, you sinners; and cpurify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 aLament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 aHumble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
Do Not Judge a Brother
11 aDo not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother band judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one Lawgiver, awho is able to save and to destroy. bWho are you to judge another?
Do Not Boast About Tomorrow
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? aIt is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, a“If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. aAll such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, ato him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson.
All rights reserved.