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James 4

KJV · Chapter 4/5

1From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

2Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

3Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

4Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

5Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

6But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

9Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

11Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

13Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

14Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

15For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

16But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

17Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

James identifies selfish desires and friendship with the world as the roots of conflicts and wars among people, calling readers to repentance and humility before God. He warns against rashly judging others and against the arrogance of planning the future without considering God's will.

Explanation

James connects external conflicts (fights, wars) to unmet inner desires, a psychological and spiritual diagnosis that remains relevant today: the root of much discord is unresolved envy and covetousness. The expression 'friendship with the world' does not mean rejecting people or everyday life, but adopting values and priorities opposed to God's, a kind of spiritual unfaithfulness. The famous phrase 'if the Lord wills' (4:15), used to counter arrogant plans about the future, became common practice among Christians throughout history as a sign of humility before the uncertainty of life. Today's application is to examine the inner roots of our own conflicts and to cultivate humility when planning for the future.

Fun facts

  • The Latin expression 'Deo volente' (God willing), or its Arabic counterpart 'inshallah,' still widely used today across different cultures and religions, reflects exactly the principle taught in James 4:15 about acknowledging God's sovereignty over human plans.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. James 4:1It asks a direct question about the source of conflicts in the community: they do not come from outside, but from the very desires warring within each person.
  2. James 4:2It describes a frustrating cycle: wanting without getting, fighting because of it, and still ending up with nothing — because, according to the text, the problem is not even asking God for what is needed.
  3. James 4:3It completes the reasoning: when they do ask, they ask wrongly — intending to spend it all on their own pleasures, with no connection to real needs or God’s will.
  4. James 4:4Saying that ‘the friendship of the world is enmity with God’ is not about ordinary friendships, but about adopting values and priorities centered only on self-interest — the text is describing a choice of loyalty, not forbidding social contact.
  5. James 4:5A verse that is difficult to translate, but it reinforces the point: there is an inward pull toward envy and selfishness that Scripture already recognized — it is neither new nor an excuse.
  6. James 4:6The quotation ‘God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble’ originally comes from Proverbs and also reappears in 1 Peter, making it one of the most repeated sayings in the New Testament about humility.
  7. James 4:7The instruction to ‘resist the devil,’ so that he will flee, is tied to the previous statement about submitting to God — the idea is that spiritual resistance does not depend on one’s own strength, but on being aligned with God first.
  8. James 4:8It offers the way back: drawing near to God works both ways — He draws near to whoever draws near to Him — but this also calls for cleansing one’s actions and resolving the inner division of being ‘double minded.’
  9. James 4:9It calls for a moment of sincere repentance, with no half-measures: acknowledging the seriousness of the wrong before moving on, trading shallow laughter for real grief.
  10. James 4:10It closes this call to repentance with a promise: humbling yourself before the Lord is not permanent humiliation — it is the path by which, the text says, a person ends up being lifted up.
  11. James 4:11Saying that judging a brother is, in practice, ‘judging the law’ follows the reasoning that whoever criticizes and condemns others is putting themselves in the place of the one who set the rules, not simply the one who follows them.
  12. James 4:12It reinforces the previous verse’s point about judging others: there is only one judge with real authority over people’s lives, and it is not any human being.
  13. James 4:13It describes people making business plans with total certainty about the future — a trip scheduled, a year set, profit guaranteed — only to then question all that confidence.
  14. James 4:14Comparing life to ‘even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away’ is used to challenge plans made without regard for one’s own mortality — the preceding context speaks of people planning trips and business deals as if the future were guaranteed.
  15. James 4:15After comparing life to a vapor that quickly passes, the text suggests a more honest way to phrase plans: acknowledging that everything depends on the Lord’s will and on life continuing.
  16. James 4:16It calls it boasting — and something evil — to make plans as if the future were guaranteed, ignoring that life is not under anyone’s total control.
  17. James 4:17It closes the chapter by broadening the idea of sin: it is not only doing wrong, it is also failing to do the good one already knew ought to be done.

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