James 4:8-17 ▼

8 draw near to God, and He will draw near to you; cleanse hands, you sinners! And purify hearts, you split-souled!

9 Be exceedingly afflicted, and mourn, and weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning, and the joy to heaviness;

10 be made low before the LORD, and He will exalt you.

11 Do not speak against one another, brothers; he who is speaking against a brother, and is judging his brother, speaks against law, and judges law, and if you judge law, you are not a doer of law but a judge.

12 One is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy; you—who are you that judges the other?

13 Go, now, you who are saying, “Today and tomorrow we will go on to such a city, and will pass there one year, and traffic, and make gain,”

14 who does not know the thing of tomorrow; for what is your life? For it is a vapor that is appearing for a little [while], and then is vanishing;

15 instead, you [ought] to say, “If the LORD may will, we will live, and do this or that”;

16 but now you glory in your pride; all such glorying is evil;

17 to him, then, knowing to do good, and not doing [it], it is sin to him.