James 4

1From where come wars and from where come fights among you? Is it not from here—from your pleasures that wage war in your members?

2You desire and do not have; you murder and envy and are not able to obtain; you fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.

3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4Adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5Or do you think that the Scripture speaks in vain? The Spirit whom he caused to dwell in us yearns jealously.

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

7Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people.

9Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom.

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

11Do not speak against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or 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.

12There is one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you, judging your neighbor?

13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”

14You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

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

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

17So, for the one who knows to do good and does not do it, it is sin for him.