Old Testament

New Testament

James 4:3-14 New Century Version (NCV)

3. Or when you ask, you do not receive because the reason you ask is wrong. You want things so you can use them for your own pleasures.

4. So, you are not loyal to God! You should know that loving the world is the same as hating God. Anyone who wants to be a friend of the world becomes God’s enemy.

5. Do you think the Scripture means nothing that says, “The Spirit that God made to live in us wants us for himself alone”?

6. But God gives us even more grace, as the Scripture says,“God is against the proud,but he gives grace to the humble.”

7. So give yourselves completely to God. Stand against the devil, and the devil will run from you.

8. Come near to God, and God will come near to you. You sinners, clean sin out of your lives. You who are trying to follow God and the world at the same time, make your thinking pure.

9. Be sad, cry, and weep! Change your laughter into crying and your joy into sadness.

10. Humble yourself in the Lord’s presence, and he will honor you.

11. Brothers and sisters, do not tell evil lies about each other. If you speak against your fellow believers or judge them, you are judging and speaking against the law they follow. And when you are judging the law, you are no longer a follower of the law. You have become a judge.

12. God is the only Lawmaker and Judge. He is the only One who can save and destroy. So it is not right for you to judge your neighbor.

13. Some of you say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to some city. We will stay there a year, do business, and make money.”

14. But you do not know what will happen tomorrow! Your life is like a mist. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away.

Read complete chapter James 4