James 4
New Testament for Everyone
Humility and faith
4 Where do wars come from? Why do people among you fight? It all comes from within, doesn’t it—from your desires for pleasure which make war in your members. 2 You want something and you haven’t got it, so you murder someone. You long to possess something, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war. The reason you don’t have it is because you don’t ask for it! 3 And when you do ask, you don’t get it, because you ask wrongly, intending to spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers! Don’t you know that to be friends with the world means being enemies with God? So anyone who wants to be friends with the world is setting themselves up as God’s enemy. 5 Or do you suppose that when the Bible says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit he has made to dwell in us,” it doesn’t mean what it says?
6 But God gives more grace; so it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit to God, then; resist the devil and he will run away from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Make your hands clean, you sinners; and make your hearts pure, you double-minded lot. 9 Make yourselves wretched; mourn and weep. Let your laughter turn to mourning, and your joy to sorrow. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Living by trust in God
11 Do not speak evil against one another, my dear family. Anyone who speaks evil against another family member, or passes judgment against them, 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 one lawgiver, one judge who can rescue or destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
13 Now look here, you people who say, “Today, or tomorrow, we will go to such-and-such a town and spend a year there, and trade, and make some money.” 14 You have no idea what the next day will bring. What is your life? You are a mist which appears for a little while and then disappears again. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live, and we shall do this, or that.” 16 But, as it is, you boast in your pride. All such boasting is evil. 17 So then, if anyone knows the right thing to do, but doesn’t do it, it becomes sin for them.
James 4
Easy-to-Read Version
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 don’t get them. So you kill and are jealous of others. But you still cannot get what you want. So you argue and fight. You don’t get what you want because you don’t ask God. 3 Or when you ask, you don’t receive anything, because the reason you ask is wrong. You only want to use it for your own pleasure.
4 You people are not faithful to God! You should know that loving what the world has is the same as hating God. So anyone who wants to be friends with this evil world becomes God’s enemy. 5 Do you think the Scriptures mean nothing? The Scriptures say, “The Spirit God made to live in us wants us only for himself.”[a] 6 But the kindness God shows is greater. As the Scripture says, “God is against the proud, but he is kind to the humble.”[b]
7 So give yourselves to God. Stand against the devil, and he will run away from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. You are sinners, so clean sin out of your lives.[c] You are trying to follow God and the world at the same time. Make your thinking pure. 9 Be sad, be sorry, and cry! Change your laughter into crying. Change your joy into sadness. 10 Be humble before the Lord, and he will make you great.
You Are Not the Judge
11 Brothers and sisters, don’t say anything against each other. If you criticize your brother or sister in Christ or judge them, you are criticizing and judging the law they follow. And when you are judging the law, you are not a follower of the law. You have become a judge. 12 God is the one who gave us the law, and he is the Judge. He is the only one who can save and destroy. So it is not right for you to judge anyone.
Let God Plan Your Life
13 Some of you say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to some city. We will stay there a year, do business, and make money.” Listen, think about this: 14 You don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Your life is like a fog. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away. 15 So you should say, “If the Lord wants, we will live and do this or that.” 16 But now you are proud and boast about yourself. All such boasting is wrong. 17 If you fail to do what you know is right, you are sinning.
Footnotes
- James 4:5 “The Spirit … himself” Other possible translations: “God strongly desires the spirit that he made to live in us.” Or “The spirit that he made to live in us is full of envious desires.” See Ex. 20:5.
- James 4:6
Quote from Prov. 3:34. - James 4:8 so clean sin out of your lives Literally, “so wash your hands.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International