James 4:1-6
International Children’s Bible
Give Yourselves to God
4 Do you know where your fights and arguments come from? They come from the selfish desires that make war inside 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 only so that you can use them for your own pleasures.
4 So, you people are not loyal to God! You should know that loving the world is the same as hating God. So if a person wants to be a friend of the world, he makes himself God’s enemy. 5 Do you think the Scripture means nothing? It 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,
“God is against the proud,
but he gives grace to the humble.” Proverbs 3:34
Footnotes
- 4:5 “The Spirit . . . alone.” These words may be from Exodus 20:5.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
