James 4:1–17
4 Where do 1wars 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 2war. 3Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 bYou ask and do not receive, cbecause you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 4Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that dfriendship with the world is enmity with God? eWhoever 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, f“The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
g“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
7 Therefore submit to God. hResist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 iDraw near to God and He will draw near to you. jCleanse your hands, you sinners; and kpurify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 lLament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 mHumble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
11 nDo not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother oand 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 5Lawgiver, pwho is able to save and to destroy. qWho 6are you to judge 7another?
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow 8we 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? rIt is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, s“If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. tAll such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, uto him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.