James 4

¹What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you ? Is it not this , that your passions are at war within you ?

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 wrongly , to spend it on your passions .

⁴You adulterous people ! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God ? 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 that he has made to dwell in us ?

⁶But he gives more grace . Therefore it says , God opposes the proud , but gives grace to the humble .

⁷Submit yourselves 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 , and purify your hearts , you double-minded .

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

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

¹¹Do not speak evil against one another , brothers . The one who speaks against a brother or judges 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 one lawgiver and judge , he who is able to save and to destroy . But who are you to judge your neighbor ?

¹³Come now , you who say , 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 you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes .

¹⁵Instead you ought to say , If the Lord wills , we will live and do this or that .

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

¹⁷So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin .