God's New Bible

The General Epistle of James

⭑ Berean Study Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

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- Chapter 4 -

1
What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?(a)
2
You 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.
3
And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.
4
You adulteresses!(b) 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 (c) an enemy of God.
5
Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit (d) He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy?
6
But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”(e)

Drawing Near to God

7
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9
Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
10
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.
11
Brothers, 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.
12
There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Do Not Boast about Tomorrow

(Proverbs 27:1)
13
Come 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.”
14
You 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.
15
Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.”
16
As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.
17
Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin.

Footnotes

(a)4:1 Literally passions warring among your members?
(b)4:4 See Hosea 3:1.
(c)4:4 Or is appointed
(d)4:5 Or the spirit
(e)4:6 Proverbs 3:34 (see also LXX)
1
Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?
2
You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.
3
You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
4
You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5
Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?
6
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”(a)

Drawing Near to God

7
Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9
Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11
Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges 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.
12
Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

Do Not Boast about Tomorrow

(Proverbs 27:1)
13
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.”
14
Yet you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
15
For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”
16
But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.
17
To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

Footnotes

(a)4:6 ℘ Proverbs 3:34
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