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James 4
New Matthew Bible
James 4
New Matthew Bible
Conflict and fighting come from sensuality and covetousness. The friendship of the world is enmity before God. An exhortation to flee slander and the vanity of this life.
4 Where do conflict and fighting come from among you? Do they not come from the sensuality and covetousness that reign in your members? 2 You lust, and have not. You envy, and have indignation, and cannot obtain. You fight and war, and have not because you ask not. 3 You ask and receive not because you ask amiss, even to consume it upon your pleasures.
4 You adulterers and women who break matrimony, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity toward God? Whoever will be a friend of the world, is made the enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, the Spirit that dwells in you resists envy, 6 but gives more grace?
7 Submit yourselves to God. And resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purge your hearts, ye wavering-minded. 9 Suffer afflictions: sorrow ye, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Cast yourselves down before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
11 Do not backbite one another, brethren. He who speaks against his brother, and he who judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not an observer of the law, but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you, to judge another man?
13 Come now, you who say, Today and tomorrow let us go into such and such a city, and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and make money, 14 and yet do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what thing is your life? It is even a vapour, which appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Therefore you ought to say, If the Lord so wills, and if we live, let us do this or that. 16 But now you glory in your boastings. All such glorying is evil.
17 Therefore, to him who knows how to do good but does it not, to him it is sin.
James 4
New International Version
James 4
New International Version
Submit Yourselves to God
4 What causes fights and quarrels(A) among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle(B) within you? 2 You 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. 3 When you ask, you do not receive,(D) because you ask with wrong motives,(E) that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4 You 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:
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil,(L) and he will flee from you. 8 Come 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)
11 Brothers 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. 12 There 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
13 Now 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.” 16 As 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
- James 4:4 An allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1.
- 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
- James 4:6 Prov. 3:34
- 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.
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Copyright © 2016 by Ruth Magnusson (Davis). Includes emendations to February 2022. All rights reserved.
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