James 4:1-11

Warning Against Worldliness

1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions[a] are 1at war within you?[b]
2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask 2wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
4 3You adulterous people![c] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? 4Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit 5that he has made to dwell in us"?
6 But 6he gives more grace. Therefore it says, 7"God opposes the proud, but 8gives grace to the humble."
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. 9Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 10Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. 11Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and 12purify your hearts, 13you double-minded.
9 14Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 15Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11 16Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.[d] The one who speaks against a brother or 17judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

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Cross References 17

  • 1. Romans 7:23; 1 Peter 2:11
  • 2. [1 John 5:14]
  • 3. Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 2:2
  • 4. John 15:19; 1 John 2:15; [Matthew 6:24]
  • 5. 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16
  • 6. Isaiah 54:7, 8; See Matthew 13:12
  • 7. 1 Peter 5:5; Cited from Proverbs 3:34(Gk.)
  • 8. Isaiah 54:7, 8; See Matthew 13:12
  • 9. 1 Peter 5:8, 9; [Ephesians 4:27; Ephesians 6:11]
  • 10. 2 Chronicles 15:2; Lamentations 3:57; Zechariah 1:3; Malachi 3:7; [Luke 15:20]
  • 11. Isaiah 1:16
  • 12. Jeremiah 4:14
  • 13. James 1:8
  • 14. [Matthew 5:4]
  • 15. ver. 6; Isaiah 57:15; [Luke 1:52]; See Matthew 23:12
  • 16. 2 Corinthians 12:20; 1 Peter 2:1; [James 5:9]
  • 17. See Matthew 7:1

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. Greek pleasures; also verse 3
  • [b]. Greek in your members
  • [c]. Greek You adulteresses!
  • [d]. Or brothers and sisters
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.