James 4

1 From where [are] wars and fightings among you? [Is it] not from here, out of your passions warring in your members?

What is the cause of wars and fighting among you? is it not in your desires which are at war in your bodies?

2 You desire, and do not have, [so] you murder; and you are zealous, and are not able to attain, [so] you fight and war; and you do not have, because of your not asking;

You are burning with desire, and have not your desire, so you put men to death; you are full of envy, and you are not able to get your desire, so you are fighting and making war; you have not your desire, because you do not make request for it.

3 you ask, and you do not receive, because you ask badly, that you may spend [it] in your pleasures.

You make your request but you do not get it, because your request has been wrongly made, desiring the thing only so that you may make use of it for your pleasure.

4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Have you not known that friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whoever, then, may intend to be a friend of the world, he is designated [as] an enemy of God.

O you who are false to God, do you not see that the friends of this world are not God's friends? Every man desiring to be a friend of this world makes himself a hater of God.

5 Or, do you think that the Writing says emptily, “The Spirit that has dwelt in us yearns with envy,”

Or does it seem to you that it is for nothing that the holy Writings say, The spirit which God put into our hearts has a strong desire for us?

6 but [God] gives greater grace, for this reason it says, “God sets Himself up against proud ones, and He gives grace to lowly ones.”

But he gives more grace. So that the Writings say, God is against the men of pride, but he gives grace to those who make themselves low before him.

7 Be subject, then, to God; stand up against the Devil, and he will flee from you;

For this cause be ruled by God; but make war on the Evil One and he will be put to flight before you.

8 draw near to God, and He will draw near to you; cleanse hands, you sinners! And purify hearts, you split-souled!

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Make your hands clean, you evil-doers; put away deceit from your hearts, you false in mind.

9 Be exceedingly afflicted, and mourn, and weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning, and the joy to heaviness;

Be troubled, with sorrow and weeping; let your laughing be turned to sorrow and your joy to grief.

10 be made low before the LORD, and He will exalt you.

Make yourselves low in the eyes of the Lord and you will be lifted up by him.

11 Do not speak against one another, brothers; he who is speaking against a brother, and is judging his brother, speaks against law, and judges law, and if you judge law, you are not a doer of law but a judge.

Do not say evil against one another, my brothers. He who says evil against his brother or makes himself his brother's judge, says evil against the law and is judging the law: and in judging the law you become, not a doer of the law but a judge.

12 One is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy; you—who are you that judges the other?

There is only one judge and law-giver, even he who has the power of salvation and of destruction; but who are you to be your neighbour's judge?

13 Go, now, you who are saying, “Today and tomorrow we will go on to such a city, and will pass there one year, and traffic, and make gain,”

How foolish it is to say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this town, and be there for a year and do business there and get wealth:

14 who does not know the thing of tomorrow; for what is your life? For it is a vapor that is appearing for a little [while], and then is vanishing;

When you are not certain what will take place tomorrow. What is your life? It is a mist, which is seen for a little time and then is gone.

15 instead, you [ought] to say, “If the LORD may will, we will live, and do this or that”;

But the right thing to say would be, If it is the Lord's pleasure and if we are still living, we will do this and that.

16 but now you glory in your pride; all such glorying is evil;

But now you go on glorying in your pride: and all such glorying is evil.

17 to him, then, knowing to do good, and not doing [it], it is sin to him.

The man who has knowledge of how to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.