James 4
1 Whence wars and whence fightings among you? are they not from hence—due to your pleasures which are taking the field in your members?
Where do conflicts and quarrels among you come from? Do they not come from your passions that war in your members?
2 Ye covet—and have not, ye commit murder, and are jealous—and cannot obtain, —ye fight and war. Ye have not—because ye do not really ask,
You lust, and do not have. You kill, covet, and cannot obtain. You fight and make war. You do not have, because you do not ask.
3 Ye ask and receive not, because that, basely, ye ask, in order that, in your pleasures, ye may spend [it].
You ask, and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.
4 Adulteresses! Know ye not that, the friendship of the world, is, enmity to God? Whosoever, therefore, is minded to be, a friend, of the world, an enemy of God, doth constitute himself.
You adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5 Or think ye that, in vain, the scripture speaketh? Is it, for envying, that the spirit which hath taken an abode within us doth crave?
Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit which he made to dwell in us yearns jealously"?
6 Howbeit he giveth, greater, favour. Wherefore it saith—God, against the haughty, arrayeth himself, Whereas, unto the lowly, he giveth favour.
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
7 Range yourselves, therefore, under God, but withstand the adversary, and he will flee from you:
Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near unto God, and he will draw near unto you. Cleanse hands, sinners! Chasten hearts, double souls!
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Be miserable and lament and weep, let, your laughter, into lamentation, be turned, and, your joy, into dejection;
Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
10 Be made low in presence of the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11 Be not speaking one against another, brethren! He that speaketh against a brother, or judgeth his brother, speaketh against law, and judgeth law; Now, if, upon law, thou art passing judgment, thou art not a doer of law, but a judge!
Do not speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.
12 One, is Lawgiver and Judge—He who hath power to save and to destroy; but who art, thou, that judgest thy neighbour?
Only one is the lawgiver and judge, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
13 Come now! ye that say—Today or To-morrow, we will journey unto this city here, and will spend there a year, and will trade and get gain, —
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow let us go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit."
14 Men who are not versed in the morrow—of what sort your life [will be]; for ye are, a vapour—for a little, appearing, then, just disappearing!
Whereas you do not know what tomorrow will be like. What is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
15 Instead of your saying—If, the Lord, be pleased, we shall both, live and do this or that;
For you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that."
16 Whereas, now, are ye boasting in your pretensions: —All boasting like this, is, wicked,
But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.
17 To him, therefore, who knoweth how to be doing, a right thing, and is not doing it, it is, sin, unto him.
To him therefore who knows to do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin.
