James 4

Drawing Close to God

1What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

4You adulterers!#4:4 Greek You adulteresses! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him.#4:5 Or They say that the spirit God has placed within us is filled with envy; or They say that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, opposes our envy. 6And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,

“God opposes the proud

but gives grace to the humble.”#4:6 Prov 3:34 (Greek version).

7So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

Warning against Judging Others

11Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters.#4:11 Greek brothers. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. 12God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?

Warning about Self-Confidence

13Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” 14How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. 15What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” 16Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.

17Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

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James 4: NLT

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James 4

Warning Against Worldliness

1What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions#4:1 Greek pleasures; also verse 3 are #Rom. 7:23; 1 Pet. 2:11at war within you?#4:1 Greek in your members 2You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask #[1 John 5:14]wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4#Isa. 54:5; Jer. 2:2You adulterous people!#4:4 Or You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? #John 15:19; 1 John 2:15; [Matt. 6:24]Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit #1 Cor. 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16that he has made to dwell in us”? 6But #Isa. 54:7, 8; See Matt. 13:12he gives more grace. Therefore it says, #1 Pet. 5:5; Cited from Prov. 3:34 (Gk.)“God opposes the proud but #Isa. 54:7, 8; See Matt. 13:12gives grace to the humble.” 7Submit yourselves therefore to God. #1 Pet. 5:8, 9; [Eph. 4:27; 6:11]Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8#2 Chr. 15:2; Lam. 3:57; Zech. 1:3; Mal. 3:7; [Luke 15:20] Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. #Isa. 1:16Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and #Jer. 4:14purify your hearts, #ch. 1:8you double-minded. 9#[Matt. 5:4]Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10#ver. 6; Isa. 57:15; [Luke 1:52]; See Matt. 23:12Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 # 2 Cor. 12:20; 1 Pet. 2:1; [ch. 5:9 ] Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.#4:11 Or brothers and sisters The one who speaks against a brother or #See Matt. 7:1judges his brother, speaks evil against 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 only #Isa. 33:22one lawgiver and #ch. 5:9judge, he who is able to save and #Matt. 10:28to destroy. But #Rom. 14:4who are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting About Tomorrow

13Come now, you who say, #Prov. 27:1; Luke 12:18-20“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For #Ps. 102:3; [Job 7:7]you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15Instead you ought to say, #See Acts 18:21“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16As it is, you boast in your arrogance. #[1 Cor. 5:6]All such boasting is evil. 17#[Luke 12:47, 48; 2 Pet. 2:21]; See John 9:41So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

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