20 For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:

Read full chapter

20 For I am afraid that when I come(A) I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be.(B) I fear that there may be discord,(C) jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition,(D) slander,(E) gossip,(F) arrogance(G) and disorder.(H)

Read full chapter

Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,

Read full chapter

Therefore, rid yourselves(A) of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander(B) of every kind.

Read full chapter

19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Read full chapter

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality,(A) impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.(B) I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.(C)

Read full chapter

15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Read full chapter

15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

Read full chapter

11 For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.

Read full chapter

11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household(A) have informed me that there are quarrels among you.

Read full chapter

29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

Read full chapter

29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,(A)

Read full chapter

16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.

Read full chapter

16 These people are grumblers(A) and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires;(B) they boast(C) about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

Read full chapter

21 And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.

Read full chapter

21 I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved(A) over many who have sinned earlier(B) and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery(C) in which they have indulged.

Read full chapter

28 A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.

Read full chapter

28 A perverse person stirs up conflict,(A)
    and a gossip separates close friends.(B)

Read full chapter

18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

Read full chapter

18 For they mouth empty, boastful words(A) and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping(B) from those who live in error.

Read full chapter

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

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.

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

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.

Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

Read full chapter

Submit Yourselves to God

What causes fights and quarrels(A) among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle(B) within you? 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. 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.

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) Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us[b]?(J)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. James 4:4 An allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1.
  2. 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

14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

Read full chapter

14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition(A) in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.(B) 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven(C) but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.(D) 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition,(E) there you find disorder and every evil practice.

Read full chapter

31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Read full chapter

31 Get rid of(A) all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.(B) 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another,(C) forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.(D)

Read full chapter