James 4
English Standard Version
Warning Against Worldliness
4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions[a] are (A)at 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 (B)wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 (C)You adulterous people![c] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? (D)Therefore 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 (E)that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But (F)he gives more grace. Therefore it says, (G)“God opposes the proud but (H)gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. (I)Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 (J)Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. (K)Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and (L)purify your hearts, (M)you double-minded. 9 (N)Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 (O)Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11 (P)Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.[d] The one who speaks against a brother or (Q)judges 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. 12 There is only (R)one lawgiver and (S)judge, he who is able to save and (T)to destroy. But (U)who are you to judge your neighbor?
Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Come now, you who say, (V)“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For (W)you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, (X)“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. (Y)All such boasting is evil. 17 (Z)So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Footnotes
- James 4:1 Greek pleasures; also verse 3
- James 4:1 Greek in your members
- James 4:4 Or You adulteresses!
- James 4:11 Or brothers and sisters
雅各书 4
Chinese Standard Bible (Simplified)
骄傲与谦卑
4 你们中间的冲突是从哪里来的?争执是从哪里来的?难道不是从你们身体各部分中交战的私欲而来的吗? 2 你们渴望而不能拥有,就杀人;你们嫉妒而不能获得,就争斗、作战。你们不能拥有,是因为你们不求; 3 你们求也不能得到,是因为你们求的动机[a]不对,为了要花费在自己的私欲上。
4 你们这些淫乱的人[b]哪!难道你们不知道,与世界为友,就是与神为敌吗?所以,如果有人想要和世界做朋友,他就成了神的仇敌! 5 或者,你们以为经上所说的“神[c]使圣灵住在我们里面,他爱我们[d]到嫉妒的地步”是空话吗?
6 不过他赐下更大的恩典,所以经上说:
“神抵挡骄傲的人,
赐恩典给谦卑的人。”[e]
7 因此,你们要服从神,要抵挡魔鬼,魔鬼就会逃避你们。 8 你们要亲近神,神就会亲近你们。你们这些罪人哪,当使你们的手洁净!心怀二意的人哪,当使你们的心纯洁! 9 你们应当难过、悲伤、痛哭;把你们的欢笑变为悲伤,快乐变为忧闷。 10 你们当在主面前降卑,他就会高举你们。
11 弟兄们,你们不可彼此诽谤。诽谤弟兄或评断自己弟兄的,就是诽谤律法、评断律法。如果你评断律法,你就不是实行律法的人,而是个审判者了。 12 那设立律法的和审判者[f],只有一位;他就是既能拯救又能毁灭的那一位。而你到底是谁,竟然评断邻人呢?
不要自夸
13 现在来吧!你们这些人哪,你们说“今天或明天,我们要到某某城去,要在那里住上一年,做生意赚钱。” 14 你们不知道明天是什么、生命是什么!你们不过是一阵云雾,出现片刻,随后就消失了。
15 你们倒应该说:“主如果愿意,我们就将活着,做这事或做那事。” 16 但如今,你们在自己的骄傲中夸耀。凡是这样的夸耀,都是邪恶的。 17 所以,那知道该行美善的事而不去行的,对他来说,这就是罪了。
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.
James 4
King James Version
4 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
Copyright © 2011 by Global Bible Initiative
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.