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James 4
New King James Version

### Pride Promotes Strife

4 Where do [a]wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure (A)that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and [b]war. [c]Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 (B)You ask and do not receive, (C)because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 [d]Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that (D)friendship with the world is enmity with God? (E)Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, (F)“The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:

(G)“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”

### Humility Cures Worldliness

7 Therefore submit to God. (H)Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 (I)Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. (J)Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and (K)purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 (L)Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 (M)Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

### Do Not Judge a Brother

11 (N)Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother (O)and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one [e]Lawgiver, (P)who is able to save and to destroy. (Q)Who[f] are you to judge [g]another?

### Do Not Boast About Tomorrow

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow [h]we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? (R)It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, (S)“If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. (T)All such boasting is evil.

17 Therefore, (U)to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

#### Footnotes

1. James 4:1 battles
2. James 4:2 battle
3. James 4:2 NU, M omit Yet
4. James 4:4 NU omits Adulterers and
5. James 4:12 NU adds and Judge
6. James 4:12 NU, M But who
7. James 4:12 NU a neighbor
8. James 4:13 M let us

#### Cross references

1. James 4:1 : Rom. 7:23; [Gal. 5:17]; 1 Pet. 2:11
2. James 4:3 : Job 27:8, 9
3. James 4:3 : [Ps. 66:18]
4. James 4:4 : Rom. 8:7; 1 John 2:15
5. James 4:4 : Gal. 1:4
6. James 4:5 : Gen. 6:5
7. James 4:6 : Job 22:29; Ps. 138:6; Prov. 3:34; Matt. 23:12; 1 Pet. 5:5
8. James 4:7 : [Eph. 4:27; 6:11]; 1 Pet. 5:8
9. James 4:8 : 2 Chr. 15:2; Zech. 1:3; Mal. 3:7; Heb. 7:19
10. James 4:8 : Job 17:9; Is. 1:16; 1 Tim. 2:8
11. James 4:8 : Jer. 4:14; James 3:17; 1 Pet. 1:22; 1 John 3:3
12. James 4:9 : Matt. 5:4
13. James 4:10 : Job 22:29; Luke 14:11; 18:14; 1 Pet. 5:6
14. James 4:11 : 2 Cor. 12:20; Eph. 4:31; James 5:9; 1 Pet. 2:1–3
15. James 4:11 : [Matt. 7:1–5]; Rom. 14:4
16. James 4:12 : [Matt. 10:28]
17. James 4:12 : Rom. 14:4
18. James 4:14 : Job 7:7; Ps. 102:3; 1 Pet. 1:24
19. James 4:15 : Acts 18:21; 1 Cor. 4:19
20. James 4:16 : 1 Cor. 5:6
21. James 4:17 : [Luke 12:47]; John 9:41; 2 Pet. 2:21

New King James Version (NKJV)

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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