James 4
1 What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?
From where are wars and fightings among you? Is it not from here: from your pleasures warring in your body-parts?
2 You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask.
Ye desire and do not have, so ye murder. And ye envy and cannot obtain, so ye fight and make war. Ye do not have, because ye do not ask.
3 And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.
Ye ask, and do not receive, because ye ask wrongly, so that ye may spend on your pleasures.
4 You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is hatred of God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
5 Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy?
Or think ye that the scripture says vainly, The Spirit that he caused to dwell in us yearns with jealousy?
6 But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, God is opposed to the arrogant, but gives grace to the lowly.
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Be subordinate therefore to God, but 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, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Approach God and he will approach you. Cleanse the hands, ye sinners, and purify the hearts, ye double-minded.
9 Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
Be ye sorrowful, and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into a downcast look.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.
Be ye made lower in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.
11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. And if you judge the law, you are not a practitioner of the law, but a judge of it.
Speak not against each other, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against law and judges law. But if thou judge law, thou are not a doer of law, but a judge.
12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy, but thou, who are thou who judge the other man?
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.”
Go now, men who say, Today and tomorrow we will go into this city, and will operate one year there, and will engage in trade and will get gain-
14 You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
men who know not of the morrow. For what is your life? For it will be a vapor that appears for a little while, and then also vanishes away-
15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.”
in place of your saying, If the Lord should will, then we will live and do this or that.
16 As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.
But now ye boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin.
He therefore who knows to do good, and is not doing it, to him it is sin.
