JamesChapter 4

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¹What causes fights and arguments among you? Don't they come from the desires that battle inside you? ²You want things you don't have. You kill and you envy, but you still can't get what you want. You argue and fight. You don't have what you want because you don't ask. ³And when you do ask, you don't receive. That's because you ask for the wrong reasons. You want to waste it on your own pleasures. ⁴You unfaithful people! Don't you know that being a friend of the world means being against God? So anyone who chooses to be the world's friend makes himself God's enemy.a ⁵Or do you think Scripture says this for no reason? It says that the Spirit God made to live in us longs with envy.b ⁶But God gives us even more grace. That is why Scripture says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." ⁷So give yourselves to God and obey him. Stand up against the devil, and he will run away from you. ⁸Come near to God, and he will come near to you. You sinners, wash your hands. You who can't make up your minds, make your hearts pure. ⁹Be sad, mourn, and cry. Change your laughing into crying. Change your joy into sadness. ¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. ¹¹Brothers and sisters, don't speak evil against each other. Anyone who speaks against a fellow believer or judges him is speaking against the law and judging it. And if you judge the law, you are not obeying it. Instead, you are acting as its judge. ¹²There is only one who gives the law and judges. He is the one who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? ¹³Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this city or that one. We will spend a year there. We will do business and make money." ¹⁴You don't even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are like a mist. It shows up for a little while and then disappears. ¹⁵Instead, you should say, "If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that." ¹⁶But as it is, you brag about your proud plans. All bragging like that is evil. ¹⁷So if someone knows the right thing to do but doesn't do it, he is guilty of sin.