James 4:1-10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Friendship with the World
4 Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 2 You want something and do not have it, so you commit murder. And you covet[a] something and cannot obtain it, so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.(A) 4 Adulterers![b] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.(B) 5 Or do you suppose that the scripture speaks to no purpose? Does the spirit that God caused to dwell[c] in us desire envy?(C) 6 But God gives all the more grace; therefore it says,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”(D)
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.(E) 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.(F) 9 Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.(G)
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