James 3:16-4:14

English Standard Version

¹⁶For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. ¹⁷But ^(A)the wisdom from above is first pure, then ^(B)peaceable, gentle, open to reason, ^(C)full of mercy and good fruits, ^(D)impartial and ^(E)sincere. ¹⁸And ^(F)a harvest of righteousness ^(G)is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Warning Against Worldliness

4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions^[a] are ^(H)at war within you?^[b] ²You 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. ³You ask and do not receive, because you ask ^(I)wrongly, to spend it on your passions. ⁴^(J)You adulterous people!^[c] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? ^(K)Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit ^(L)that he has made to dwell in us”? ⁶But ^(M)he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ^(N)“God opposes the proud but ^(O)gives grace to the humble.” ⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. ^(P)Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸^(Q)Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. ^(R)Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and ^(S)purify your hearts, ^(T)you double-minded. ⁹^(U)Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰^(V)Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

¹¹^(W)Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.^[d] The one who speaks against a brother or ^(X)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. ¹²There is only ^(Y)one lawgiver and ^(Z)judge, he who is able to save and ^(AA)to destroy. But ^(AB)who are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting About Tomorrow

¹³Come now, you who say, ^(AC)“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— ¹⁴yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For ^(AD)you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.