James 4

A Warning against Prideⓘ

Conflicts come from selfish desires¹What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Donʼt 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. ³And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.

⁴You 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. ⁵Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit^d He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy? ⁶But He gives us more grace. This is why it says:

Drawing Near to Godⓘ

Submit to God and humble yourselves⁷Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Do not judge one another¹¹Brothers, 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. ¹²There 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ⓘ

Life is a mist¹³Come 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.” ¹⁴You 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.

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