James 4

Modern

Literal

A Warning against Pride

¹What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?^a

¹From where are battles and from where are fights among you? Is it not from there, out of your pleasures warring in your members?

²You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask.

²You desire, and you do not have. You murder and are jealous, and you are not able to obtain. You fight and battle. You do not have, because you do not ask.

³And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.

³You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, that you may spend it in your pleasures.

⁴You adulteresses!^a Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself^b an enemy of God.

⁴Adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever should wish to be a friend of the world is appointed an enemy of God.

⁵Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit^a He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy?

⁵Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit that He made to dwell in us yearns with envy”?

⁶But He gives us more grace. This is why it says:

“God opposes the proud,

but gives grace to the humble.”^a

⁶But He gives greater grace. Therefore it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Drawing Near to God

⁷Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

⁷Therefore subject yourselves to God. But 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, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁸Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify hearts, you double-souled.

⁹Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.

⁹Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and the joy to gloom.

¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

¹¹Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. And if you judge the law, you are not a practitioner of the law, but a judge of it.

¹¹Do not speak against one another, brothers. The one speaking against a brother or judging 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.

¹²There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

¹²One is the Lawgiver and Judge, the One being able to save and to destroy. But who are you, the one judging the neighbor?

Do Not Boast about Tomorrow

¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.”

¹³Come now, those saying, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and will spend a year there and will trade and make gain,”

¹⁴You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

¹⁴who do not know what is of tomorrow. What is your life? For it is a vapor appearing for a little while and then vanishing.

¹⁵Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.”

¹⁵Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, both we will live and we will do this or that.”

¹⁶As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.

¹⁶But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

¹⁷Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin.

¹⁷Therefore to the one knowing to do good, and not doing it, to him it is sin.