As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.
Parallel translations
- WEB But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.
- KJV But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
- NKJV But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
- NASB But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
- NLT Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Boasting in one's confident plans is arrogant and evil. Self-reliant pride about the future dishonors God.
Overview
James names the merchants' self-assured boasting as arrogance and evil, the opposite of the humble dependence he commended. Such pride exalts the self and ignores the God on whom all things depend. The remedy is the humility that gives glory to God for life and breath, recognizing every good thing as his gift rather than our achievement.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Prov 27:1Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
- 1 Cor 5:6Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?
- Ps 52:7“Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”
- Prov 25:14Like clouds and wind without rain is the man who boasts of gifts never given.
- Ps 52:1For the choirmaster. A Maskil of David. After Doeg the Edomite went to Saul and told him, “David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.” Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The loving devotion of God endures all day long.
- 1 Cor 4:7–8For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
- Jas 3:14But if you harbor bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast in it or deny the truth.
- Isa 47:10You 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.’
- Rev 18:7As 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.’
- Isa 47:7–8You said, ‘I will be queen forever.’ You did not take these things to heart or consider their outcome.
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Christ at the center
The wisdom from above and the royal law of love are the life of those who belong to 'our glorious Lord Jesus Christ' — faith in him made visible in works.
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Original language
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