James 4

¹¹Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.

¹⁷For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want.

²³But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.

¹⁴But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed.

⁷because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

¹⁵Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

¹⁶For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.

²⁴Until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

⁷Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

⁸For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁵Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

⁹So I tell you: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

¹⁰For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹⁰Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

⁹Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.

¹⁰For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

¹⁴And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

²²and we will receive from Him whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight.

⁶But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

⁷That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

¹What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?

⁸The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.

⁴Then they will cry out to the Lord, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done.

¹⁵Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

¹⁶For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.

⁷because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

²⁴No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

¹⁹If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

¹⁰Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

¹⁴I have given them Your word and the world has hated them. For they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

¹⁶What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”

¹⁹Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

²⁹But Moses replied, “Are you jealous on my account? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would place His Spirit on them!”

³For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

¹Of David. Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong.

²¹When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.

¹²For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

³⁴He mocks the mockers, but gives grace to the humble.

⁵Young men, in the same way, submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

⁶Though the Lord is on high, He attends to the lowly; but the proud He knows from afar.

¹²Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.

²³A man’s pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor.

⁸Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

⁹Resist him, standing firm in your faith and in the knowledge that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.

²⁷and do not give the devil a foothold.

¹¹Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes.

¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

⁶Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you.

²where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He was hungry.

³The devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

³The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

¹⁸The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call out to Him in truth.

²²let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

⁷Yet from the days of your fathers, you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Hosts. “But you ask, ‘How can we return?’

³So tell the people that this is what the Lord of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the Lord of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts.’

⁶Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.

⁷Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.

²So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.

⁴Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

¹⁰Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

¹¹Consider what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what vindication! In every way you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

²⁵Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.

¹³Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in sorrow.

¹Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.

²Your riches have rotted and moths have eaten your clothes.

⁶⁷Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I keep Your word.

⁶The Lord sustains the humble, but casts the wicked to the ground.

¹²For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

⁶Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you.

¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

⁶But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

⁷Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

²⁹When men are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’ then He will save the lowly.

¹Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.

⁹Do not complain about one another, brothers, so that you will not be judged. Look, the Judge is standing at the door!

¹You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on another. For on whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

³⁷Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

¹¹May no slanderer be established in the land; may calamity hunt down the man of violence.

¹⁰Why, then, do you judge your brother? Or why do you belittle your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.

¹¹It is written: “As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will confess to God.”

⁴Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

¹You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on another. For on whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

²⁸Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

²²For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King. It is He who will save us.

⁹Do not complain about one another, brothers, so that you will not be judged. Look, the Judge is standing at the door!

²⁵Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.

¹Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

¹⁷So he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, since I have nowhere to store my crops?’

¹⁸Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and will build bigger ones, and there I will store up all my grain and my goods.

³And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” So they used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar.

⁴“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”

¹I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy what is good!” But it proved to be futile.

²people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.

¹Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.

²⁴For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,

⁵You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah

¹⁷The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever.

³For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers.

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.

⁷Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.

¹⁰But the one who is rich should exult in his low position, because he will pass away like a flower of the field.

²¹Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the purpose of the Lord will prevail.

³And this we will do, if God permits.

³⁷Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it?

²¹But as he left, he said, “I will come back to you if God is willing.” And he set sail from Ephesus.

¹⁰in my prayers at all times, asking that now at last by God’s will I may succeed in coming to you.

⁷For I do not want to see you now only in passing; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.

¹Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

⁶Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?

⁷“Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”

¹⁴Like clouds and wind without rain is the man who boasts of gifts never given.

¹⁰You were secure in your wickedness; you said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray; you told yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’

⁷As much as she has glorified herself and lived in luxury, give her the same measure of torment and grief. In her heart she says, ‘I sit as queen; I am not a widow and will never see grief.’

⁴¹“If you were blind,” Jesus replied, “you would not be guilty of sin. But since you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”

¹⁷If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.

²¹It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them.

⁴⁷That servant who knows his master’s will but does not get ready or follow his instructions will be beaten with many blows.

⁴⁸But the one who unknowingly does things worthy of punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from him who has been entrusted with much, even more will be demanded.

³²Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.