James 4
1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
What is the cause of the fighting and quarrelling that goes on among you? Isn’t it to be found in the desires which are always at war within you?
2 Ye 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.
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 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
You ask, yet do not receive, because you ask for a wrong purpose – to spend what you get on your pleasures.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with YHWH? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of YHWH.
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 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to 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 giveth more favour. Wherefore he saith, YHWH resisteth the proud, but giveth favour unto 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 therefore to YHWH. 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 nigh to YHWH, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye 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 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Grieve, mourn, and lament! Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your happiness to gloom!
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of YHWH, and he shall lift you up.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11 Speak 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.
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 one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
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 neighbour?
13 Go 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:
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 Whereas 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.
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 For that ye ought to say, If YHWH will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
Instead you should say “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
But as it is, you are boasting presumptuously! All such boasting is wicked.
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
The person, then, who knows what is right but fails to do it – that is sin in them.
