James 4
1 What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?
What is the cause of the fighting and quarreling that goes on among you? Isn’t it to be found in the desires which are always at war within you?
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.
You crave, yet do not have, so you commit murder, so You covet, yet cannot gain your end. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you 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.
You ask, yet do not receive, because you ask for a wrong purpose – to spend what you get 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.
Unfaithful people! Don’t you know that to be friends with the world means to be at enmity with God? Therefore whoever chooses to be friends with the world makes himself an enemy to God.
5 Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy?
Do you suppose scripture means nothing when it says, ‘Envy results from the longings of the spirit which God has implanted within you?’
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 us greater grace; and that is why it says, – ‘God opposes the haughty, but gives grace to the humble.’
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Therefore submit to God. Stand up to 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.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Make your hands clean, you sinners; and your hearts pure, you vacillators!
9 Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
Grieve, mourn, and lament! Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your happiness to gloom!
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
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.
Do not disparage one another, friends. The person who disparages others, or passes judgment on them, disparages the Law and passes judgment on the Law. But, if you pass judgment on the Law, you are not obeying it, but judging it.
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 only one lawgiver and judge – he who has the power both to save and to destroy. So then who are you to pass judgment on your neighbor?
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.”
Listen to me, you who say ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money,’
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.
yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow! For you are but a puff of smoke that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.”
Instead you should say ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’
16 As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.
But as it is, you are boasting presumptuously! All such boasting is wicked.
17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin.
The person, then, who knows what is right but fails to do it – that is sin in them.
