James4

James questions the source of conflicts among believers, attributing them to selfish lusts and asking amiss. He declares that friendship with the world constitutes enmity with God, urging believers to submit to God, resist the devil, and humble themselves. The chapter also condemns speaking evil of others and arrogant boasting about future plans, reminding readers of life's brevity and God's sovereignty. Finally, it states that knowing to do good and not doing it is sin.

The Source of Conflict and Strife

1
Whence are wars and fightings among you? not thence--out of your passions, that are as soldiers in your members?
2
ye desire, and ye have not; ye murder, and are zealous, and are not able to attain; ye fight and war, and ye have not, because of your not asking;
3
ye ask, and ye receive not, because evilly ye ask, that in your pleasures ye may spend it .

Friendship with the World is Enmity with God

4
Adulterers and adulteresses! have ye not known that friendship of the world is enmity with God? whoever, then, may counsel to be a friend of the world, an enemy of God he is set.
5
Do ye think that emptily the Writing saith, `To envy earnestly desireth the spirit that did dwell in us,'
6
and greater grace he doth give, wherefore he saith, `God against proud ones doth set Himself up, and to lowly ones He doth give grace?'

Call to Submission and Repentance

7
be subject, then, to God; stand up against the devil, and he will flee from you;
8
draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you; cleanse hands, ye sinners! and purify hearts, ye two-souled!
9
be exceeding afflicted, and mourn, and weep, let your laughter to mourning be turned, and the joy to heaviness;
10
be made low before the Lord, and He shall exalt you.

Warning Against Judging Others

11
Speak not one against another, brethren; he who is speaking against a brother, and is judging his brother, doth speak against law, and doth judge law, and if law thou dost judge, thou art not a doer of law but a judge;
12
one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy; thou--who art thou that dost judge the other?

The Danger of Presumptuous Planning

13
Go, now, ye who are saying, `To-day and to-morrow we will go on to such a city, and will pass there one year, and traffic, and make gain;'
14
who do not know the thing of the morrow; for what is your life? for it is a vapour that is appearing for a little, and then is vanishing;
15
instead of your saying, `If the Lord may will, we shall live, and do this or that;'
16
and now ye glory in your pride; all such glorying is evil;

The Sin of Omission

17
to him, then, knowing to do good, and not doing, sin it is to him.
Use ← → arrow keys to navigate
Settings

Reading Style

Typeface

Font Size 19px

Reading Width 45 chars

Options