James 4:7-17

New American Standard Bible

^7 (A)Submit therefore to God. But ^[a](B)resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ^8 (C)Come close to God and He will come close to you. ^(D)Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and ^(E)purify your hearts, you ^(F)[b]double-minded. ^9 (G)Be miserable, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom. ^10 (H)Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

^11 (I)Do not speak against one another, ^(J)brothers and sisters. The one who speaks against a brother or sister, or ^(K)judges his brother or sister, speaks against ^(L)the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not ^(M)a doer of the law but a judge of it. ¹² There is only one ^(N)Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is ^(O)able to save and to destroy; but ^(P)who are you, ^[c]judging your neighbor?

^13 (Q)Come now, you who say, “^(R)Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” ^14 [d]Yet you do not know ^[e]what your life will be like tomorrow. ^(S)For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away. ^15 [f]Instead, you ought to say, “^(T)If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” ¹⁶ But as it is, you boast in your ^[g]arrogance; ^(U)all such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ So ^(V)for one who knows the ^[h]right thing to do and does not do it, for him it is sin.