James

James 4

Where the Fighting Comes From

1 Where do wars come from, and where do battles among you come from? Is it not from here — from your pleasures that go to war in your members? 2 You desire and do not have; you murder and are jealous, and are not able to obtain; you battle and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4 Adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? So whoever wishes to be a friend of the world is made an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose that the Scripture speaks emptily: “The spirit he made to dwell in us longs toward envy”? 6 But he gives greater favor. Therefore it says:

“God opposes the proud,

but gives favor to the humble.”

Submit to God

7 Therefore submit to God.

And resist the Accuser, 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-souled ones.

9 Be wretched and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning,

and your joy to gloom.

10 Be humbled before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

11 Do not speak against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. And if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 One is the lawgiver and judge, the one able to save and to destroy. But you — who are you, judging your neighbor?

If the Lord Wills

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and trade and make a profit,” 14 you who do not know what your life will be tomorrow. For you are a vapor, appearing for a little while and then disappearing — 15 instead of your saying, “If the Lord wills, we will both live and do this or that.”

16 But now you boast in your pretensions. All such boasting is evil. 17 So to one who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.