Jam 4 | ISV | STEP | Stop Fighting with Each Other Where do those fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your selfish desires that are at war in your bodies, don't they?

James 4

1 Stop Fighting with Each OtherWhere do those fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your selfish desires that are at war in your bodies, don't they?Rom 7:23; Gal 5:17; 1Pet 2:11 2 You want something but do not get it, so you commit murder. You covet something but cannot obtain it, so you quarrel and fight. You do not get things because you do not ask for them! 3 You ask for something but do not get it because you ask for it for the wrong reason—for your own pleasure.Job 27:9; 35:12; Ps 18:41; 66:18; Prov 1:28; Isa 1:15; Jer 11:11; Mic 3:4; Zech 7:13; 1John 3:22; 5:14

4 You adulterers! Don't you know that friendship with the world means hostility with God? So whoever wants to be a friend of this world is an enemy of God.Ps 73:27; John 15:19; 17:14; Gal 1:10; 1John 2:15 5 Or do you think the Scripture means nothing when it says that the Spirit that God ^{▼▼Lit. he} caused to live in us jealously yearns for us? ^{▼▼Exod 20:5; Num 11:29}Gen 6:5; 8:21; Num 11:29; Prov 21:10 6 But he gives all the more grace. And so he says,Job 22:29; Ps 138:6; Prov 3:34; 29:23; Matt 23:12; Luke 1:52; 14:11; 18:14; 1Pet 5:5

“God opposes the arrogant

but gives grace to the humble.” ^{▼▼Prov 3:34 (LXX)}

7 Therefore, submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you.Eph 4:27; 6:11; 1Pet 5:9 8 Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.2Chr 15:2; Isa 1:16; James 1:8; 1Pet 1:22; 1John 3:3 9 Be miserable, mourn, and cry. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom.Matt 5:4 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.Job 22:29; Matt 23:12; Luke 14:11; 18:14; 1Pet 5:6

11 Do Not Criticize Each OtherDo not criticize each other, brothers. Whoever makes it his habit to criticize his brother or to judge his brother is judging the law and condemning the law. But if you condemn the law, you are not a doer of the law but its judge.Matt 7:1; Luke 6:37; Rom 2:1; 1Cor 4:5; Eph 4:31; 1Pet 2:1 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge—the one who can save and destroy. So who are you to judge your neighbor?Matt 10:28; Rom 14:4, 13

13 Do Not Boast about Future PlansNow listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town, stay there a year, conduct business, and make money.”Prov 27:1; Luke 12:18 14 You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.Job 7:7; Ps 102:3; James 1:10; 1Pet 1:24; 1John 2:17 15 Instead you should say, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live—and do this or that.”Acts 18:21; 1Cor 4:19; 16:7; Heb 6:3 16 But you boast about your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.1Cor 5:6

17 Therefore, anyone who knows what is right but fails to do it is guilty of sin.Luke 12:47; John 9:41; 15:22; Rom 1:20-21, 32