James 4-5

New Century Version

Give Yourselves to God

4 Do you know where your fights and arguments come from? They come from the selfish desires that war within you. ² You want things, but you do not have them. So you are ready to kill and are jealous of other people, but you still cannot get what you want. So you argue and fight. You do not get what you want, because you do not ask God. ³ Or when you ask, you do not receive because the reason you ask is wrong. You want things so you can use them for your own pleasures.

⁴ So, you are not loyal to God! You should know that loving the world is the same as hating God. Anyone who wants to be a friend of the world becomes God’s enemy. ⁵ Do you think the Scripture means nothing that says, “The Spirit that God made to live in us wants us for himself alone”?^{[a] 6} But God gives us even more grace, as the Scripture says,

⁷ So give yourselves completely to God. Stand against the devil, and the devil will run from you. ⁸ Come near to God, and God will come near to you. You sinners, clean sin out of your lives. You who are trying to follow God and the world at the same time, make your thinking pure. ⁹ Be sad, cry, and weep! Change your laughter into crying and your joy into sadness. ¹⁰ Humble yourself in the Lord’s presence, and he will honor you.

You Are Not the Judge

¹¹ Brothers and sisters, do not tell evil lies about each other. If you speak against your fellow believers or judge them, you are judging and speaking against the law they follow. And when you are judging the law, you are no longer a follower of the law. You have become a judge. ¹² God is the only Lawmaker and Judge. He is the only One who can save and destroy. So it is not right for you to judge your neighbor.

Let God Plan Your Life

¹³ Some of you say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to some city. We will stay there a year, do business, and make money.” ¹⁴ But you do not know what will happen tomorrow! Your life is like a mist. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away. ¹⁵ So you should say, “If the Lord wants, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you are proud and you brag. All of this bragging is wrong. ¹⁷ Anyone who knows the right thing to do, but does not do it, is sinning.

A Warning to the Rich

5 You rich people, listen! Cry and be very sad because of the troubles that are coming to you. ² Your riches have rotted, and your clothes have been eaten by moths. ³ Your gold and silver have rusted, and that rust will be a proof that you were wrong. It will eat your bodies like fire. You saved your treasure for the last days. ⁴ The pay you did not give the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the workers have been heard by the Lord All-Powerful. ⁵ Your life on earth was full of rich living and pleasing yourselves with everything you wanted. You made yourselves fat, like an animal ready to be killed. ⁶ You have judged guilty and then murdered innocent people, who were not against you.

Be Patient

⁷ Brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord comes again. A farmer patiently waits for his valuable crop to grow from the earth and for it to receive the autumn and spring rains. ⁸ You, too, must be patient. Do not give up hope, because the Lord is coming soon. ⁹ Brothers and sisters, do not complain against each other or you will be judged guilty. And the Judge is ready to come! ¹⁰ Brothers and sisters, follow the example of the prophets who spoke for the Lord. They suffered many hard things, but they were patient. ¹¹ We say they are happy because they did not give up. You have heard about Job’s patience, and you know the Lord’s purpose for him in the end. You know the Lord is full of mercy and is kind.

Be Careful What You Say

¹² My brothers and sisters, above all, do not use an oath when you make a promise. Don’t use the name of heaven, earth, or anything else to prove what you say. When you mean yes, say only yes, and when you mean no, say only no so you will not be judged guilty.

The Power of Prayer

¹³ Anyone who is having troubles should pray. Anyone who is happy should sing praises. ¹⁴ Anyone who is sick should call the church’s elders. They should pray for and pour oil on the person^[b] in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer that is said with faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will heal that person. And if the person has sinned, the sins will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so God can heal you. When a believing person prays, great things happen. ¹⁷ Elijah was a human being just like us. He prayed that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years! ¹⁸ Then Elijah prayed again, and the rain came down from the sky, and the land produced crops again.

Saving a Soul

¹⁹ My brothers and sisters, if one of you wanders away from the truth, and someone helps that person come back, ²⁰ remember this: Anyone who brings a sinner back from the wrong way will save that sinner’s soul from death and will cause many sins to be forgiven.