James 4:1-8

Easy-to-Read Version

Give Yourselves to God

4 Do you know where your fights and arguments come from? They come from the selfish desires that make war inside you. ² You want things, but you don’t get them. So you kill and are jealous of others. But you still cannot get what you want. So you argue and fight. You don’t get what you want because you don’t ask God. ³ Or when you ask, you don’t receive anything, because the reason you ask is wrong. You only want to use it for your own pleasure.

⁴ You people are not faithful to God! You should know that loving what the world has is the same as hating God. So anyone who wants to be friends with this evil world becomes God’s enemy. ⁵ Do you think the Scriptures mean nothing? The Scriptures say, “The Spirit God made to live in us wants us only for himself.”^{[a] 6} But the kindness God shows is greater. As the Scripture says, “God is against the proud, but he is kind to the humble.”^[b]

⁷ So give yourselves to God. Stand against the devil, and he will run away from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. You are sinners, so clean sin out of your lives.^[c] You are trying to follow God and the world at the same time. Make your thinking pure.