James 4
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. 2:2 You 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. 13:12 he 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. 13:12 gives 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. 1:16 Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and #Jer. 4:14 purify 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. 33:22 one lawgiver and #ch. 5:9 judge, he who is able to save and #Matt. 10:28 to 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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The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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Jacob 4
4
1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? 2You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. 3You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”? 6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”#Proverbs 3:34 7Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” 14Yet you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.” 16But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. 17To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.
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