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 whence are there among you wars and strifes? Is it not from the lusts which 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 desire, and have not; you kill and are emulous, yet it cometh not into your hands; you strive and make wars, and nothing have because you do not ask;

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 wickedly, as that you may cherish 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.

Adulterers, know you not that the friendship of this world is enmity with Aloha? He, therefore, who willeth to be the friend of this world, hath become the enemy of Aloha.

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.

Or do you vainly think that the scripture saith, that In emulation desireth the Spirit who dwelleth in us?

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 more excellent grace hath our Lord given unto us. Wherefore he saith, Aloha humbleth the proud, and to the humble he giveth grace.

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.

BE subject, therefore, unto Aloha; withstand Satana, 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].

and draw nigh unto Aloha, and he will be nigh you. Purify your hands, sinners, and sanctify your hearts, divided of soul.

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 humbled and sorrowful, and let your laughter be turned into grief, and your gladness into anxiety.

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and [as a result] he will honor you.

Be humbled before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

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 against one another, my brethren; for he who speaketh against his brother, or judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law. And if the law thou judgest, thou art not a doer of the law, but the judge of it.

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]

For one is the appointer of the law and the Judge, who can save and destroy. But thou, who art thou, who judgest thy neighbour?

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!

But what shall we say of them who say, To-day or tomorrow we will go to this city, or that, and work there one year, and negotiate, and make 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.

and they know not what shall be on the morrow: for what is our life, but a vapour which for a little while is seen, and vanisheth and endeth?

15 Instead of [what you are saying], you should say, “If the Lord wills/desires, we will live and do this or that.”

For instead they should say, If the Lord will, and we live, we will 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.

They glory in their pride. All glorying such as this is from the Evil.

17 So if anyone knows the right thing that he should do, [but] he does not do it, he is sinning.

And he who knoweth the good and doeth it not, sin is to him.