James 4

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

Where do the wars and disputes among you come from? Is it not precisely from your pleasures, the ones at war in your members?

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 crave and do not have; you murder and covet and are not able to obtain; you fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask.

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

You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so that you may lavish it on your pleasures.

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.

Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? So whoever may want to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

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

Or do you suppose that the Scripture says in vain that the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?

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 greater grace; therefore He says: “God resists proud ones, but gives grace to humble ones.”

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

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

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

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Sinners, cleanse your hands! Double-minded, purify your hearts!

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

Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into dejection.

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

Humble yourself before the Lord and He will exalt you.

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.

Brothers, do not speak evil of one another. Because the one speaking against a brother and judging his brother speaks against a law and judges a law. So if you judge a law you are not a law-doer but a judge.

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

The Lawgiver and Judge is One, the one who is able to save and to destroy. So who are you (sg) to be judging someone who is different?

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,”

Come now, you who say, “Today and tomorrow let us travel to that certain city, spend a year there, do business and make a profit;”

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;

whereas you do not know anything about the morrow. For what is our life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time but then vanishes away.

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

Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

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

But now you boast in your arrogant pretensions. All such boasting is malignant.

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

Therefore, to the one knowing to do good and not doing it, to him it is sin.