4What causes fights and quarrels^g among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle^h within you? ²You desire but do not have, so you kill.ⁱ You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. ³When you ask, you do not receive,^j because you ask with wrong motives,^k that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

⁴You adulterous^l people,^a don’t you know that friendship with the world^m means enmity against God?ⁿ Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.^o ⁵Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us^b?^p ⁶But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud

but shows favor to the humble.”^c^q

⁷Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil,^r and he will flee from you. ⁸Come near to God and he will come near to you.^s Wash your hands,^t you sinners, and purify your hearts,^u you double-minded.^v ⁹Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.^w ¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.^x

Read in Logos

James 4:10: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Footnotes

aAn allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1.
bOr that the spirit he caused to dwell in us envies intensely; or that the Spirit he caused to dwell in us longs jealously
c Prov. 3:34

Cross references

g Tit 3:9
hSee Ro 7:23
i Mt 5:21, 22; Jas 5:6; 1 Jn 3:15
j Ps 18:41; See Mt 7:7
k Ps 66:18; 1 Jn 3:22; 5:14
l Isa 54:5; Jer 3:20; Hos 2:2–5; 3:1; 9:1
mSee Jas 1:27
n Ro 8:7; 1 Jn 2:15
o Jn 15:19
p 1 Co 6:19
q Pr 3:34; See Mt 23:12
r Eph 4:27; 6:11; 1 Pe 5:6–9
s Ps 73:28; Zec 1:3; Mal 3:7; Heb 7:19
t Isa 1:16
u Ps 24:4; Jer 4:14
v Ps 119:113; Jas 1:8
w Lk 6:25
xver 6; Job 5:11; 1 Pe 5:6