James 4:1-8

1 Whence [come] wars and whence fightings among you? [Is it] not thence, -- from your pleasures, which war in your members?
2 Ye lust and have not: ye kill and are full of envy, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war; ye have not because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask evilly, that ye may consume [it] in your pleasures.
4 Adulteresses, know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore is minded to be [the] friend of the world is constituted enemy of God.
5 Think ye that the scripture speaks in vain? Does the Spirit which has taken his abode in us desire enviously?
6 But he gives more grace. Wherefore he says, God sets himself against [the] proud, but gives grace to [the] lowly.
7 Subject yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse [your] hands, sinners, and purify [your] hearts, ye double-minded.

Images for James 4:1-8

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. Lit. 'pleasures,' not 'lusts;' there is an additional idea, the satisfaction the heart feels in satisfying, or rather gratifying, lust: see Tit. 3.3.
  • [b]. Lit. 'the friendship of the world is enmity of God;' but it is the state as between the parties, in English 'with.' In what follows, the same construction in Greek, it is taken up as 'our state towards' God, but this is warning to conscience.
  • [c]. I have, with some hesitation, translated this passage as above. I cannot find that the Greek word is used in a good or holy sense of jealousy. The application to what precedes is evident.
  • [d]. See Prov. 3.34.
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.