James 4

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¹From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? ✦ ²Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. ✦ ³Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. ✦ ⁴Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. ✦ ⁵Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? ✦ ⁶But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. ✦ ⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ✦ ⁸Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. ✦ ⁹Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. ✦ ¹⁰Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. ✦ ¹¹Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. ✦ ¹²There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another? ✦ ¹³Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: ✦ ¹⁴Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. ✦ ¹⁵For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. ✦ ¹⁶But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. ✦ ¹⁷Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. ✦

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Where this chapter connects

Jas 1 ·8 Jas 5 ·5 Rom 14 ·5 Rom 7 ·5 1 Pet 5 ·4 2 Chr 33 ·4 Rom 2 ·4 Dan 4 ·4

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.

How James 4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — James videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on James 4YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — James 4David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JamesMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — James 4Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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