James 4

Pride Promotes Strife

4Where do ¹wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure ^athat war in your members? ²You 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. ^3bYou ask and do not receive, ^cbecause you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. ⁴⁴Adulterers 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. ⁵Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ^f“The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

⁶But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:

^g“God resists the proud,

But gives grace to the humble.”

Humility Cures Worldliness

⁷Therefore submit to God. ^hResist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸ⁱDraw near to God and He will draw near to you. ^jCleanse your hands, you sinners; and ^kpurify your hearts, you double-minded. ^9lLament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ^10mHumble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Do Not Judge a Brother

¹¹ⁿDo 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. ¹²There is one ⁵Lawgiver, ^pwho is able to save and to destroy. ^qWho ⁶are you to judge ⁷another?

Do Not Boast About Tomorrow

¹³Come 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”; ¹⁴whereas 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. ¹⁵Instead you ought to say, ^s“If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” ¹⁶But now you boast in your arrogance. ^tAll such boasting is evil.

¹⁷Therefore, ^uto him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.