James 4

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

Whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence? even of your carnal appetites making 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;

Ye desire, and ye have not: ye are envious, and jealous, and cannot obtain: ye fight and contend; but ye have not, because ye ask not.

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

Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask wickedly; that ye may spend it in 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.

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity to God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

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

Do ye think the scripture speaks in vain? or does the Spirit that dwelleth in us, excite to envy?

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, He giveth more grace: wherefore it is said, God resisteth the proud, but sheweth favor to the humble.

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

Submit yourselves therefore 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: cleanse your hands, O sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

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

Be grieved, and mourn, and weep: let your mirth be turned into mourning, and your joy to sadness.

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

Be humbled 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.

Speak not against one another, my brethren; he that speaketh against his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law; but if thou judge the law, thou art 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?

Now there is but one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou then that judgest another?

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, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go to such a city, and spend a year there, and trade and get gain;

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;

(though ye know not what will be on the morrow; for what is your life? a vapor, which appeareth for a little while, and then vanisheth away: ) whereas ye ought to say,

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

If the Lord will, and we should live, and do this or that:

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

but ye glory in your presumption: all such glorying is wicked.

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

To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin.