James 4
4
Against Worldliness
1 From where do quarrels arise, and from where do conflicts come among you? Do they not originate from your cravings that wage war within your inner being?
2 You desire intensely but remain empty-handed. You murder—whether through actual bloodshed or through the hatred in your hearts that God counts as murder—and you covet, burning with jealous longing for what belongs to others, yet you still cannot obtain these things. You quarrel and fight. You lack because you do not ask God.
3 When you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with corrupt motives, intending to spend it on self-indulgent pleasures.
4 You unfaithful people, do you not understand that friendship with the world means opposition toward God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to align himself with the world sets himself against God as an enemy.
5 Or do you think the Scripture speaks without meaning when it says that God yearns with jealous concern over the spirit He has caused to dwell within us?
6 But He provides an even greater measure of grace. For this reason Scripture says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Therefore, place yourselves under God’s authority. Take a firm stand against the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.
A Call to Sinners to Humble Themselves Before God
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you who are divided in loyalty.
9 Recognize your misery, grieve, and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into sorrow.
10 Lower yourselves before the Lord, and He will raise you up.
Not Speaking Against One Another
11 Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. The one who speaks against a brother or passes judgment on his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not living under the law but setting yourself up as its judge.
12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to pass judgment on your neighbor?
Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, conduct business, and make a profit.”
14 You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a short time and then disappears.
15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and carry out this or that plan.”
16 But as it is, you take pride in your self-confidence. All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, for the one who knows what is right to do and does not do it, for that person it is sin.
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James 4: AFINTEXP
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Copyright © 2026 Michael Adeyemi Adegbola. This Scripture text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
