James 4:7-5:6

English Standard Version

⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. ^(A)Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸^(B)Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. ^(C)Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and ^(D)purify your hearts, ^(E)you double-minded. ⁹^(F)Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰^(G)Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

¹¹^(H)Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.^[a] The one who speaks against a brother or ^(I)judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. ¹²There is only ^(J)one lawgiver and ^(K)judge, he who is able to save and ^(L)to destroy. But ^(M)who are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting About Tomorrow

¹³Come now, you who say, ^(N)“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— ¹⁴yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For ^(O)you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ¹⁵Instead you ought to say, ^(P)“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶As it is, you boast in your arrogance. ^(Q)All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷^(R)So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Warning to the Rich

5 Come now, ^(S)you rich, weep and howl for the ^(T)miseries that are coming upon you. ²^(U)Your riches have rotted and ^(V)your garments are moth-eaten. ³Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. ^(W)You have laid up treasure ^(X)in the last days. ⁴Behold, ^(Y)the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and ^(Z)the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of ^(AA)the Lord of hosts. ⁵^(AB)You have lived on the earth in luxury and ^(AC)in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in ^(AD)a day of slaughter. ⁶You have condemned and ^(AE)murdered ^(AF)the righteous person. He does not resist you.