James 4:7-5:6

New King James Version

Humility Cures Worldliness

⁷ Therefore submit to God. ^(A)Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ^8 (B)Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. ^(C)Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and ^(D)purify your hearts, you double-minded. ^9 (E)Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ^10 (F)Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Do Not Judge a Brother

^11 (G)Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother ^(H)and judges his brother, 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. ¹² There is one ^[a]Lawgiver, ^(I)who is able to save and to destroy. ^(J)Who^[b] are you to judge ^[c]another?

Do Not Boast About Tomorrow

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow ^[d]we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; ¹⁴ whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? ^(K)It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, ^(L)“If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you boast in your arrogance. ^(M)All such boasting is evil.

¹⁷ Therefore, ^(N)to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Rich Oppressors Will Be Judged

5 Come now, you ^(O)rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! ² Your ^(P)riches ^[e]are corrupted, and ^(Q)your garments are moth-eaten. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. ^(R)You have heaped up treasure in the last days. ⁴ Indeed ^(S)the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and ^(T)the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of ^[f]Sabaoth. ⁵ You have lived on the earth in pleasure and ^[g]luxury; you have ^[h]fattened your hearts ^[i]as in a day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.