James 4
Give Yourselves to God
1 Do you know where your fights and arguments come from? They come from the selfish desires that war within you.2 You want things, but you do not have them. So you are ready to kill and are jealous of other people, but you still cannot get what you want. So you argue and fight. You do not get what you want, because you do not ask God.
3 Or when you ask, you do not receive because the reason you ask is wrong. You want things so you can use them for your own pleasures.
4 So, you are not loyal to God! You should know that loving the world is the same as hating God. Anyone who wants to be a friend of the world becomes God’s enemy.5 Do you think the Scripture means nothing that says, “The Spirit that God made to live in us wants us for himself alone”?
6 But God gives us even more grace, as the Scripture says,
“God is against the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” t
7 So give yourselves completely to God. Stand against the devil, and the devil will run from you.8 Come near to God, and God will come near to you. You sinners, clean sin out of your lives. You who are trying to follow God and the world at the same time, make your thinking pure.9 Be sad, cry, and weep! Change your laughter into crying and your joy into sadness.
10 Humble yourself in the Lord’s presence, and he will honor you.
You Are Not the Judge
11 Brothers and sisters, do not tell evil lies about each other. If you speak against your fellow believers or judge them, you are judging and speaking against the law they follow. And when you are judging the law, you are no longer a follower of the law. You have become a judge.
12 God is the only Lawmaker and Judge. He is the only One who can save and destroy. So it is not right for you to judge your neighbor.
Let God Plan Your Life
13 Some of you say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to some city. We will stay there a year, do business, and make money.”14 But you do not know what will happen tomorrow! Your life is like a mist. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away.15 So you should say, “If the Lord wants, we will live and do this or that.”16 But now you are proud and you brag. All of this bragging is wrong.17 Anyone who knows the right thing to do, but does not do it, is sinning.
James 4
1 Whence come wars and whence come fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members?2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not.3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures.4 Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God.5 Or think ye that the scripture speaketh in vain? Doth the spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envying?6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore the scripture saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.7 Be subject therefore unto God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you.8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye doubleminded.9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall exalt you.11 Speak not one against another, brethren. He that speaketh against a brother, or judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.12 One only is the lawgiver and judge, even he who is able to save and to destroy: but who art thou that judgest thy neighbor?13 Come now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain:14 whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that.16 But now ye glory in your vauntings: all such glorying is evil.17 To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.