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 the fighting and quarrelling that goes on among you? Is not it to be found in the desires which are always at war within you?

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, yet do not obtain. You murder and rage, yet cannot gain your end. You quarrel and fight. You do not obtain, 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, yet do not receive, because you ask for a wrong purpose — to spend what you get upon 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.

Unfaithful people! Do not 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 that the Writing says emptily, “The Spirit that has dwelt in us yearns with envy,”

Do you suppose there is no meaning in the passage of Scripture which asks — ‘Is envy to result from the longings of the Spirit which God has implanted within you?’

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.”

No; the gift that God gives is for a nobler end; and that is why it is said — ‘God is opposed to the haughty, but gives help to the humble.’

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

Therefore submit 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 hands, you sinners! And purify hearts, you split-souled!

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Make your hands clean, you sinners; and your hearts pure, you vacillating men!

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

Grieve, mourn, and lament! Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your happiness to gloom!

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

Humble yourselves 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.

Do not disparage one another, Brothers. He who disparages his Brother, or passes judgment on his Brother, 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 One is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy; you—who are you that judges the other?

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge — he who has the power both to save and to destroy. But who are you that pass judgment on your neighbour?

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,”

Listen to me, you who say ‘To-day or to-morrow we will go to such and such a town, spend a year there, and trade, and make money,’

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;

And yet you do not know what your life will be like to-morrow! For you are but a mist appearing for a little while and then disappearing.

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

You ought, rather, to say ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’

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

But, as it is, you are constantly boasting presumptuously! All such boasting is wicked.

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

He, then, who knows what is right but fails to do it — that is sin in him.