James 4
All 17 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.
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- 1What causes the wars and fights among you? Do they not come from your lusts that battle within your members?
- 2You want things but don't get them. You kill and desire to have, but cannot obtain. You fight and wage war, yet you do not have because you do not ask.
- 3And when you do ask, you don't receive anything because your motives are wrong — you just want to spend it on your own pleasures.
- 4You adulterers and adulteresses! Don't you realize that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
- 5Do you think that the scripture says in vain, The spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy?
- 6But God gives even greater grace. That's why Scripture says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
- 7So submit yourselves to God. Stand against the devil, and he will run from you.
- 8Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- 9Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
- 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
- 11Brothers and sisters, do not speak evil against one another. Anyone who speaks evil of his brother and judges him speaks evil of 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 one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
- 13Listen up, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we'll travel to this city, spend a year there, do business, and make a profit."
- 14You don't even know what tomorrow will bring! What is your life, really? It's like a mist that appears for a brief moment and then vanishes.
- 15Instead, you should say, "If the Lord wills it, we'll live and do this or that."
- 16But as it is, you brag and boast about your plans. All that kind of boasting is evil.
- 17So if you know the right thing to do and don't do it, that is sin.