James 4

Stop Fighting and Submit to God

1 Where do all these fights and beefs among you all come from, Do they not come from the selfish cravings battling inside you,

2 You want what you do not have, so you attack and destroy. You envy but still cannot get it, so you fight and argue. You do not have because you do not ask God.

3 And when you do ask, you do not receive because your motives are wrong. You only want to spend it feeding your own pleasures.

4 You unfaithful people! Do you not know friendship with the world puts you at war with God, Whoever chooses the world as their friend makes themselves God’s enemy.

5 Do you think Scripture speaks for nothing when it shows how deeply God desires the spirit He placed within us,

6 But God gives even more grace. That is why Scripture says, ‘God stands against the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.’

7 So submit yourselves to God. Stand against the devil, and he will run from you.

8 Come close to God, and He will come close to you. Sinners, clean up your hands. Double-minded people, purify your hearts.

9 Take your sin seriously. Grieve, mourn, and cry. Let careless laughter turn into mourning and shallow happiness into sorrow.

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

God Is the Judge

11 Brothers and sisters, stop speaking evil about each other. Whoever attacks or judges another believer attacks and judges the law. And if you judge the law, you are sitting as its judge instead of obeying it.

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

Do Not Brag About Tomorrow

13 Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this city, stay a year, run business, and make money.’

14 You do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life, You are a mist that shows up for a little while and then disappears.

15 Instead, you should say, ‘If the Lord wants it, we will live and do this or that.’

16 But right now you brag about your plans like you control everything. All that boasting is evil.

17 So if somebody knows the right thing to do and refuses to do it, that is sin for them.