James 4
1 Now I will tell you why you are fighting among yourselves and quarreling with each other [RHQ]. It is [RHQ] because each of you wants to do evil things [PRS]. You keep on wanting to do things that are not [what God wants you to do].
From where come wars and fights among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 There are things that you [very much] desire to have, but you do not get [those things, so] you [want to] kill [HYP] [those who hinder you from getting them]. You desire what [other people have], but you are unable to get [what you desire, so] you quarrel and fight [with one another] [HYP]. You do not have [what you desire] because you do not ask [God for it].
You lust, and have not: you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: you fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not.
3 [And even when] you do ask [him], he does not give you [what you ask for] because you are asking for the wrong reason. [You are asking for things] in order that you may use them just to (enjoy yourselves/make yourselves happy).
You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it on your lusts.
4 [Like] a woman who is unfaithful to her husband, you [are being unfaithful to God and not obeying him any more] [MET]. Those who are behaving as evil people do [MTY] (OR, Those who love [the evil pleasures of] this world) are hostile toward God. Perhaps you do not realize that [RHQ]. So those who decide to act as evil people do [MTY] become enemies of God.
You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5 (Surely you remember that [God told us in] the Scriptures that he eagerly desires that his Spirit, who lives in us, will help us to love [God] only!/Do you think that it is for no reason that [God told us in] the Scriptures that he strongly desires that his Spirit, who lives in us, will help us to love [God] only?) [RHQ] God has a reason for desiring that.
Do you think that the scripture says in vain, The spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy?
6 [It is because] he is kind [to us and he] wants very much to help us. That is why (someone said/[King Solomon] wrote) [in the Scriptures], “God opposes those who are proud, but he helps those who are humble.”
But he gives more grace. Why he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
7 So submit yourselves to God. (Resist the devil/Refuse to do what the devil wants), and [as a result] he will run away from you.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Come near [spiritually] to God, and [as a result] he will come near to you. You who are sinners, stop doing what is wrong, and do only what is good [SYN, MET]. You who cannot decide [whether you will] ([commit yourselves to God/obey God completely]), stop thinking wrong thoughts, and think only pure thoughts [MTY].
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 sorrowful and weep/mourn [DOU] [because of the wrong things that you have done]. Do not laugh [DOU], ([enjoying only what you selfishly/enjoying only what you yourselves]) [desire]. Instead, be sad [because you have done what is wrong].
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and [as a result] he will honor you.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
11 My fellow believers, stop saying evil things about one another, [because] those who say something evil about a fellow believer and [are therefore] condemning [one who is like] a brother [to them] are really speaking against the law [that God gave us to obey]. [In this law, God commanded] [MTY] [us to love others], and those who say evil things about fellow believers, [it is as though] they are saying that we do not have to do what [God] commanded. If you [(sg)] say that you do not have to do what God commanded, you [(sg)] are not obeying God’s law. Instead, you [(sg)] are claiming that you [have the authority] to condemn [others].
Speak not evil one of another, brothers. He that speaks evil of his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law: but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.
12 [But in fact], there is only one who [has the authority to] tell [people] what is right to do and to condemn [them, and that is God]. He alone is able to save [people] or to destroy people. [So], (you [(sg)] certainly have no right to decide how God should punish other people./who are you to decide how God should punish other people?) [RHQ]
There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who are you that judge another?
13 [Some of you] are [arrogantly] saying, “Today or tomorrow we will go to a certain city. We will spend a year there and we will buy and sell things and earn a lot of money.” Now, you listen to me!
Go to now, you that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14 [You should not talk like that, because] you do not know what will happen tomorrow, and you do not know [how long] you will live! Your life [is short] [MET], [like] a mist that appears for a short time and then disappears.
Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
15 Instead of [what you are saying], you should say, “If the Lord wills/desires, we will live and do this or that.”
For that you ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16 But what you are doing is boasting about all the things that you arrogantly [plan to do]. Your boasting like that is evil.
But now you rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17 So if anyone knows the right thing that he should do, [but] he does not do it, he is sinning.
Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.
