James Chapter 4
1 Where
do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come
from your desires for pleasure that 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 You
ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on
your pleasures. 4 Adulterers
and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with
God? Whoever 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, "The Spirit who dwells in us
yearns jealously"? 6 But
He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble." 7 Therefore submit to God.
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; and purify your
hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament
and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy
to gloom. 10 Humble
yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. 11 Do not speak evil of one
another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and
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, who is
able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another? 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?
It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to
say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." 16 But now you boast in your
arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore,
to him who knows to do good and does not do it,
to him it is sin.