James 4
4
Pride Promotes Strife
1Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure #Rom. 7:23; (Gal. 5:17); 1 Pet. 2:11that war in your members? 2You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3#Job 27:8, 9You ask and do not receive, #(Ps. 66:18)because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that #Rom. 8:7; 1 John 2:15friendship with the world is enmity with God? #Gal. 1:4Whoever 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, #Gen. 6:5“The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
6But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
#Job 22:29; Ps. 138:6; Prov. 3:34; Matt. 23:12; 1 Pet. 5:5“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
Humility Cures Worldliness
7Therefore submit to God. #(Eph. 4:27; 6:11); 1 Pet. 5:8Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8#2 Chr. 15:2; Zech. 1:3; Mal. 3:7; Heb. 7:19Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. #Job 17:9; Is. 1:16; 1 Tim. 2:8Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and #Jer. 4:14; James 3:17; 1 Pet. 1:22; 1 John 3:3purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9#Matt. 5:4Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10#Job 22:29; Luke 14:11; 18:14; 1 Pet. 5:6Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
Do Not Judge a Brother
11#2 Cor. 12:20; Eph. 4:31; James 5:9; 1 Pet. 2:1–3Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother #(Matt. 7:1–5); Rom. 14:4and judges his brother, speaks evil of 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 one Lawgiver, #(Matt. 10:28)who is able to save and to destroy. #Rom. 14:4Who are you to judge another?
Do Not Boast About Tomorrow
13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? #Job 7:7; Ps. 102:3; 1 Pet. 1:24It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15Instead you ought to say, #Acts 18:21; 1 Cor. 4:19“If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16But now you boast in your arrogance. #1 Cor. 5:6All such boasting is evil.
17Therefore, #(Luke 12:47); John 9:41; 2 Pet. 2:21to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
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James 4: NKJV
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.