James 4:2-4
New Testament for Everyone
2 You want something and you haven’t got it, so you murder someone. You long to possess something, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war. The reason you don’t have it is because you don’t ask for it! 3 And when you do ask, you don’t get it, because you ask wrongly, intending to spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers! Don’t you know that to be friends with the world means being enemies with God? So anyone who wants to be friends with the world is setting themselves up as God’s enemy.
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James 4:2-4
New International Version
2 You desire but do not have, so you kill.(A) You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive,(B) because you ask with wrong motives,(C) that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4 You adulterous(D) people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world(E) means enmity against God?(F) Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.(G)
Footnotes
- James 4:4 An allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1.
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