James 4:1-10 ▼

1 Where do the conflicts and where do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, from your passions that battle inside you?

2 You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask;

3 you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions.

4 Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever decides to be the world's friend makes himself God's enemy.

5 Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, |The spirit that God caused to live within us has an envious yearning|?

6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, |God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.|

7 So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you.

8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded.

9 Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into despair.

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.