James 4
James diagnoses the root of conflict: desires that war within. He calls worldliness spiritual adultery and urges believers to submit to God and resist the devil, who will then flee. He warns against judging others and presuming on the future, life is a mist that appears briefly and vanishes.
JamesChapter 4 of 517 versesBerean Standard Bible
If God speaks to you through James 4, record what He said in Doxa and come back to it.
What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?
You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask.
And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.
You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.
Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy?
But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble
“He mocks the mockers, but gives grace to the humble.”
Read Proverbs 3:34›Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.
Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. And if you judge the law, you are not a practitioner of the law, but a judge of it.
There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.”
You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.”
As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.
Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin.
Read next
Best Prayer Apps 2026: Hallow, Pray.com, PrayerMate & Doxa TestedWhere to keep your prayers, the answers to them, and your testimonies, compared app by app.Cross-references for James 4
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
“Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
“and do not give the devil a foothold.”
“The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call out to Him in truth.”
“let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
Cross-references from OpenBible.info, licensed CC BY.
Have a question about James 4?
On Doxa, you can have a personal interaction about any scripture. Ask questions, explore context, and discover connections.
Real stories about these themes
Read testimonies from real people connected to what you're reading.
Explore Related Topics
If God speaks to you through James 4
Doxa is where you record what God has said to you, in the words it came in, weigh it against Scripture with people you trust, and come back to it in the years that follow.
