James 4:1-4

Passions and Pride

4:1 Where do the conflicts and where ¹  do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, ²  from your passions that battle inside you? ³  4:2 You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask; 4:3 you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions.

4:4 Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? ⁴  So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.

James 5:1-6

Warning to the Rich

5:1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud ⁵  over the miseries that are coming on you. 5:2 Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten. 5:3 Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you. It will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have hoarded treasure! ⁶  5:4 Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5:5 You have lived indulgently and luxuriously on the earth. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. ⁷  5:6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person, although he does not resist you. ⁸ 

[4:1]  ¹ tn The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.

[4:1]  ² tn Grk “from here.”

[4:1]  ³ tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”

[4:4]  ⁴ tn Grk “is hostility toward God.”

[5:1]  ⁵ tn Or “wail”; Grk “crying aloud.”

[5:3]  ⁶ tn Or “hoarded up treasure for the last days”; Grk “in the last days.”

[5:5]  ⁷ sn James’ point seems to be that instead of seeking deliverance from condemnation, they have defied God’s law (fattened your hearts) and made themselves more likely objects of his judgment (in a day of slaughter).

[5:6]  ⁸ tn Literally a series of verbs without connectives, “you have condemned, you have murdered…he does not resist.”