James 4

1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?

Where do wars and fights among you come from? Do they not come from your passions that wage war among your members?

2 You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.

You desire but do not have. You murder and are jealous but cannot obtain what you want. You fight and war. You do not have, because you do not ask.

3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?

Or do you think that the Scripture speaks in vain? The spirit that dwells in us desires to the point of envy,

6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

but God gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

7 Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Submit yourselves therefore to God, but resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9 Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning, and your joy into gloom.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. He who speaks evil against a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. Now if yoʋ judge the law, yoʋ are not a doer of the law but a judge.

12 Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

There is only one lawgiver—he who is able to save and destroy. But who are yoʋ to judge another?

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.”

Come now, you who say, “Today and tomorrow let us go to such and such a city, spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.”

14 Yet you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

You do not know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? It is a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

15 For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”

Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, let us live and do this or that.”

16 But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.

But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

17 To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

So whoever knows the right thing to do and does not do it, for him it is sin.