< James 3 >
1 My fellow believers, not many of you should [desire to] become teachers [of God’s truth, because] you know [that God] will judge us [(exc)], who teach others, more severely [than he will judge other people].
හේ මම භ්රාතරඃ, ශික්ෂකෛරස්මාභි ර්ගුරුතරදණ්ඩෝ ලප්ස්යත ඉති ඥාත්වා යූයම් අනේකේ ශික්ෂකා මා භවත|
2 It is true that we all in many ways do things that are wrong [MET]. But those who always [LIT] control what they say will be all that God intends/wants them to be. They will be able to control all their actions [MTY].
යතඃ සර්ව්වේ වයං බහුවිෂයේෂු ස්ඛලාමඃ, යඃ කශ්චිද් වාක්යේ න ස්ඛලති ස සිද්ධපුරුෂඃ කෘත්ස්නං වශීකර්ත්තුං සමර්ථශ්චාස්ති|
3 [To illustrate], if we put [a small metal] bit into the mouth of a horse in order to cause the horse to obey us, we can cause the horse to turn [and go where we want it to] [MET].
පශ්යත වයම් අශ්වාන් වශීකර්ත්තුං තේෂාං වක්ත්රේෂු ඛලීනාන් නිධාය තේෂාං කෘත්ස්නං ශරීරම් අනුවර්ත්තයාමඃ|
4 Think also about ships. [Although] a ship may be very large and [although] it can be moved by strong winds {strong winds can move it}, by [turning] a very small (rudder/steering paddle) people can direct the ship wherever they want [it to go].
පශ්යත යේ පෝතා අතීව බෘහදාකාරාඃ ප්රචණ්ඩවාතෛශ්ච චාලිතාස්තේ(අ)පි කර්ණධාරස්ය මනෝ(අ)භිමතාද් අතික්ෂුද්රේණ කර්ණේන වාඤ්ඡිතං ස්ථානං ප්රත්යනුවර්ත්තන්තේ|
5 Similarly, [although] our tongues are very small, [if we do not control them], we can [harm] many people by what we proudly say [MTY]. Think [also] about how [just] a small [flame of] fire can cause a large forest (OR, a large area of brushwood) to burn.
තද්වද් රසනාපි ක්ෂුද්රතරාඞ්ගං සන්තී දර්පවාක්යානි භාෂතේ| පශ්ය කීදෘඞ්මහාරණ්යං දහ්යතේ (අ)ල්පේන වහ්නිනා|
6 [Just like a fire damages a forest] [MET], when we say things that are evil, [we harm many people]. What we say [MTY] reveals that we are very evil. What we say contaminates/defiles everything that we think and do [PRS, MET]. [Just like a flame of fire easily] causes [the whole surrounding area] [MET] to burn, what we say [MTY] can cause [others] to want to do evil. It is the devil himself [MTY] who causes us to say evil things. (Geenna )
රසනාපි භවේද් වහ්නිරධර්ම්මරූපපිෂ්ටපේ| අස්මදඞ්ගේෂු රසනා තාදෘශං සන්තිෂ්ඨති සා කෘත්ස්නං දේහං කලඞ්කයති සෘෂ්ටිරථස්ය චක්රං ප්රජ්වලයති නරකානලේන ජ්වලති ච| (Geenna )
7 Indeed, although people are able to tame/control all kinds of wild animals, birds, reptiles and creatures that live in the water, and people have actually tamed/controlled them,
පශුපක්ෂ්යුරෝගජලචරාණාං සර්ව්වේෂාං ස්වභාවෝ දමයිතුං ශක්යතේ මානුෂිකස්වභාවේන දමයාඤ්චක්රේ ච|
8 no person ([on his own/by himself]) is able to control what he says [MTY]. And when people say evil things, [it shows that] they are unstable/uncontrolled and wicked [MTY]. [As] the poison [of a snake kills people] [MTY], [we harm others] [MET] by what we say.
කින්තු මානවානාං කේනාපි ජිහ්වා දමයිතුං න ශක්යතේ සා න නිවාර්ය්යම් අනිෂ්ටං හලාහලවිෂේණ පූර්ණා ච|
9 We use our tongue to praise God, who is our Lord and Father, but we also use our same tongue to ask God to say evil things to people. [That is very wrong]! God made people like himself, [so we should speak as respectfully to others as we speak to God].
තයා වයං පිතරම් ඊශ්වරං ධන්යං වදාමඃ, තයා චේශ්වරස්ය සාදෘශ්යේ සෘෂ්ටාන් මානවාන් ශපාමඃ|
10 We praise [God], but with our same mouth we also ask for evil [things to happen to others]. My fellow believers, this should not be!
ඒකස්මාද් වදනාද් ධන්යවාදශාපෞ නිර්ගච්ඡතඃ| හේ මම භ්රාතරඃ, ඒතාදෘශං න කර්ත්තව්යං|
11 Surely bitter water and good water do not come out of the same spring! [RHQ]
ප්රස්රවණඃ කිම් ඒකස්මාත් ඡිද්රාත් මිෂ්ටං තික්තඤ්ච තෝයං නිර්ගමයති?
12 My fellow believers, a fig tree cannot [RHQ] produce olives. Nor can [RHQ] a grapevine produce figs. Neither can a salty spring produce good [water]. [Similarly, we should say only good things, and we should not say evil things] [MET].
හේ මම භ්රාතරඃ, උඩුම්බරතරුඃ කිං ජිතඵලානි ද්රාක්ෂාලතා වා කිම් උඩුම්බරඵලානි ඵලිතුං ශක්නෝති? තද්වද් ඒකඃ ප්රස්රවණෝ ලවණමිෂ්ටේ තෝයේ නිර්ගමයිතුං න ශක්නෝති|
13 If any of you thinks [RHQ] that [you are] wise and know a lot, you should always act in a good way to show people that your good actions are the result of your [being truly] wise. Being wise [helps us to act] gently [toward others].
යුෂ්මාකං මධ්යේ ඥානී සුබෝධශ්ච ක ආස්තේ? තස්ය කර්ම්මාණි ඥානමූලකමෘදුතායුක්තානීති සදාචාරාත් ස ප්රමාණයතු|
14 But if you are very [MET] jealous/unhappy when you see that someone else is succeeding, and always want to have what you want, regardless of what others want, you should not say [that you are wise, for by boasting like that], you are saying that ([God’s message/what God says about you]) is not true.
කින්තු යුෂ්මදන්තඃකරණමධ්යේ යදි තික්තේර්ෂ්යා විවාදේච්ඡා ච විද්යතේ තර්හි සත්යමතස්ය විරුද්ධං න ශ්ලාඝධ්වං නචානෘතං කථයත|
15 Those who have such [attitudes are] not wise [MTY] in the way that God [wants them to be]. Instead, they are only thinking and acting like ([ungodly people/people who do not please God]). They think and act according to their own [evil] desires. They do what the demons [want them to do] (OR, they think and act as demons [do]).
තාදෘශං ඥානම් ඌර්ද්ධ්වාද් ආගතං නහි කින්තු පාර්ථිවං ශරීරි භෞතිකඤ්ච|
16 [Keep in mind that] people who have such attitudes (are unruly/do not submit to authority) and [do] all kinds of evil things.
යතෝ හේතෝරීර්ෂ්යා විවාදේච්ඡා ච යත්ර වේද්යේතේ තත්රෛව කලහඃ සර්ව්වං දුෂ්කෘතඤ්ච විද්යතේ|
17 But [when people] are wise [PRS] in the way that God [MTY] [wants them to be], they are pure in every way, which God considers to be very important. They also act peaceably towards [others], they (are considerate of/think about the rights and feelings of) others, they are willing to yield to [the wishes of] others, they act compassionately [toward others], and they do all kinds of good things [for others] [MET]. [How they treat others does] not depend on (others’ status/whether others are important or not), and they are sincere [in all they do].
කින්තූර්ද්ධ්වාද් ආගතං යත් ඥානං තත් ප්රථමං ශුචි තතඃ පරං ශාන්තං ක්ෂාන්තම් ආශුසන්ධේයං දයාදිසත්ඵලෛඃ පරිපූර්ණම් අසන්දිග්ධං නිෂ්කපටඤ්ච භවති|
18 Those who [act] peaceably [toward others] cause [others to also] act peaceably, with the result that they all live together [acting toward each other] in a righteous way [MET].
ශාන්ත්යාචාරිභිඃ ශාන්ත්යා ධර්ම්මඵලං රෝප්යතේ|