James 4

Proud or Humble

¹What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions ^a that wage war within you? ^{b 2}You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. ^c You do not have because you do not ask. ³You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. ^d

⁴You adulterous people! ^e Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. ^{f 5}Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely? ^g,^h

⁶But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says:

God resists the proud

but gives grace to the humble.ⁱ,^j

⁷Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ^{k 8}Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ^{l 9}Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ^{m 10}Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

¹¹Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer ⁿ defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. ^{o 12}There is one lawgiver and judge ^p who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? ^q

Our Will and God’s Will

¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” ^{r 14}Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring #— #what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes. ^s

¹⁵Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. ^{t 17}So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it. ^u