Be Humble Before God

James 4

Where do the arguments and battles among y’all come from? Don’t they come from y’all’s desires that wage war within y’all? Y’all lust but don’t have, so y’all murder. Y’all covet, but aren’t able to get, so y’all argue and battle. Y’all don’t have, because y’all don’t ask. Y’all ask and don’t receive, because y’all ask with wrong motives, that y’all may spend it on y’all’s pleasures. Adulterous people, don’t y’all know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes themselves an enemy of God. Or do y’all think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”? But ʜᴇ gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”+Prov 3:34 So y’all, submit to God. If y’all resist the devil, he will flee from y’all. Y’all draw near to God, and ʜᴇ will draw near to y’all. Cleanse your* hands, y’all sinners, and purify your* hearts, y’all double-minded. Y’all lament, mourn, and weep. Let y’all’s laughter be turned to mourning and y’all’s joy to gloom. Humble yourselves* in the presence of the Lord, and ʜᴇ will exalt y’all.

Y’all must not speak against one another, siblings. Anyone who speaks against a sibling and judges them, speaks against the law, and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver, the one who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Tomorrow’s Plans Are a Vapor

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this city and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” Yet y’all don’t know what will happen tomorrow. For what is y’all’s life? Y’all are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, y’all ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, y’all boast in y’all’s arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, whoever knows what is excellent to do but doesn’t do it, that is sin for them.