James 4:1-12

Christian Standard Bible

Proud or Humble

4 What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions^(A) that wage war within you?^{[a] 2} You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war.^[b] You do not have because you do not ask. ³ You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.^(B)

⁴ You adulterous people!^[c] Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.^{(C) 5} Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?^[d](D)

⁶ But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says:

⁷ Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.^{(F) 8} Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.^{(G) 9} Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.^{(H) 10} Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

¹¹ Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer^[f] defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.^{(I) 12} There is one lawgiver and judge^[g] who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?^(J)