Jam 4 | BSB | STEP | What [causes] conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t [they] [come] from [the] passions at war within you?

James 4

Warning against Pride

1 What [causes] conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t [they] [come] from [the] passions at war within you? 2 You crave [what] {you do} not have. You kill and covet, but are unable to obtain [it] . You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you {do} not ask. 3 [And when] you do ask, {you do} not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander [it] on your pleasures. 4 [You] adulteresses! ^{▼▼See Hosea 3:1} Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility [toward] God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think the Scripture says without reason [that] the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy? 6 But He gives [us] more grace. This is why it says: “ - God opposes [the] proud, but gives grace to [the] humble.” ^{▼▼Proverbs 3:34}

Drawing Near to God

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. 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 purify [your] hearts, [you] double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and [your] joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before [the] Lord, and He will exalt you. 11 Brothers, {do] not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against [his] brother or judges [him] speaks against [the] Law and judges [it] . And if you judge [the] Law, you are not a practitioner of [the] Law, but a judge [of it] . 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the [One who] is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge [your] neighbor?

Do Not Boast of Tomorrow

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.” 14 You do not even know what [will happen] tomorrow! What [is] your life? You are a mist that appears for a little [while] and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you [ought] to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, whoever knows [the] right thing to do, yet fails to do [it] , is guilty of sin.