Bible Gateway passage: James 4 - New International Version (2024)

Submit Yourselves to God

4What causes fights and quarrels^(A) among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle^(B) within you? ²You desire but do not have, so you kill.^(C) You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. ³When you ask, you do not receive,^(D) because you ask with wrong motives,^(E) that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

⁴You adulterous^(F) people,^[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world^(G) means enmity against God?^(H) Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.^{(I) 5}Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us^[b]?^{(J) 6}But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”^[c](K)

⁷Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil,^(L) and he will flee from you. ⁸Come near to God and he will come near to you.^(M) Wash your hands,^(N) you sinners, and purify your hearts,^(O) you double-minded.^{(P) 9}Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.^{(Q) 10}Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.^(R)

¹¹Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another.^(S) Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister^[d] or judges them^(T) speaks against the law^(U) and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it,^(V) but sitting in judgment on it. ¹²There is only one Lawgiver and Judge,^(W) the one who is able to save and destroy.^(X) But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?^(Y)

Boasting About Tomorrow

¹³Now listen,^(Z) you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”^{(AA) 14}Why, 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.^{(AB) 15}Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will,^(AC) we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.^{(AD) 17}If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.^(AE)

Footnotes

1. James 4:4 An allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1.
2. James 4:5 Or that the spirit he caused to dwell in us envies intensely; or that the Spirit he caused to dwell in us longs jealously
3. James 4:6 Prov. 3:34
4. James 4:11 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family.

Cross references

1. James 4:1 : Tit 3:9
2. James 4:1 : S Ro 7:23
3. James 4:2 : Mt 5:21, 22; Jas 5:6; 1Jn 3:15
4. James 4:3 : Ps 18:41; S Mt 7:7
5. James 4:3 : Ps 66:18; 1Jn 3:22; 5:14
6. James 4:4 : Isa 54:5; Jer 3:20; Hos 2:2-5; 3:1; 9:1
7. James 4:4 : S Jas 1:27
8. James 4:4 : Ro 8:7; 1Jn 2:15
9. James 4:4 : Jn 15:19
10. James 4:5 : 1Co 6:19
11. James 4:6 : Pr 3:34; S Mt 23:12
12. James 4:7 : Eph 4:27; 6:11; 1Pe 5:6-9
13. James 4:8 : Ps 73:28; Zec 1:3; Mal 3:7; Heb 7:19
14. James 4:8 : Isa 1:16
15. James 4:8 : Ps 24:4; Jer 4:14
16. James 4:8 : Ps 119:113; Jas 1:8
17. James 4:9 : Lk 6:25
18. James 4:10 : ver 6; Job 5:11; 1Pe 5:6
19. James 4:11 : Ro 1:30; 2Co 12:20; 1Pe 2:1
20. James 4:11 : S Mt 7:1
21. James 4:11 : Jas 2:8
22. James 4:11 : Jas 1:22
23. James 4:12 : Isa 33:22; S Jas 5:9
24. James 4:12 : Mt 10:28
25. James 4:12 : S Mt 7:1
26. James 4:13 : Jas 5:1
27. James 4:13 : Pr 27:1; Lk 12:18-20
28. James 4:14 : Job 7:7; Ps 39:5; 102:3; 144:4; Isa 2:22
29. James 4:15 : S Ac 18:21
30. James 4:16 : 1Co 5:6
31. James 4:17 : Lk 12:47; Jn 9:41