James 4

1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?

2 You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.

3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?

6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

7 Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9 Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, 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.

12 Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.”

14 Yet you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

15 For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”

16 But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.

17 To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

Around James 4

Context

Context for this book is being written. A note appears here only once it names its sources.

AI explanation

James 4 · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this chapter says

Where do fights come from? James asks it plainly, and answers just as plainly: they come from the desires that war inside you. You want and don't have. You fight and make war. You don't have because you don't ask, and when you ask you ask with wrong motives.

He uses sharp words about friendship with the world, which he calls hostility toward God, and then pivots to grace: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. So submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee. “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” Cleanse your hands, purify your hearts, and humble yourselves, and he will exalt you.

The chapter closes with two warnings about the way people talk and plan. Do not speak against one another, because only one is lawgiver and judge. And do not plan next year's profit as if the future were yours, for you are “a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away”. Instead, say, If the Lord wills.

Background

James is still writing to a community that has quarrels, jealousy and pride in it. The sharp language of verses 4 to 9 is meant to wake them up, not to condemn a group of outsiders. The proverb about the proud and the humble is drawn from Proverbs 3. The last verses speak to merchants who plan trips and profits, which fits the scattered Jewish communities James is addressing. The final line about knowing to do good and not doing it sums up the book.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 19 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

Report a mistake

CommunityVoices, not sources

Readers share what this chapter means to them in the app.

See what readers say about James 4

World English Bible. Public-domain source and edition notes