James 4
1 What is the cause of the fighting and quarrelling that goes on among you? Is not it to be found in the desires which are always at war within you?
你们之间的争斗和吵闹从何而来？难道不是来自你们身体中彼此对抗的情感欲望吗？
2 You crave, yet do not obtain. You murder and rage, yet cannot gain your end. You quarrel and fight. You do not obtain, because you do not ask.
你们在欲望中燃烧，但却得不到想要的。为了追逐欲望，你们会杀人，但却无法得到自己所追求的。你们吵闹争斗，但什么都得不到，因为你们并没有为之祈祷；
3 You ask, yet do not receive, because you ask for a wrong purpose — to spend what you get upon your pleasures.
你们祈祷了，但却什么也没得到。那是因为你们的动机错误，你们想要的，就是把所得的一切用于满足自己的私欲。
4 Unfaithful people! Do not you know that to be friends with the world means to be at enmity with God? Therefore whoever chooses to be friends with the world makes himself an enemy to God.
淫乱的人哪！你们难道没意识到，与世俗为友就是与上帝为敌吗？与世俗为友之人，就成了上帝的敌人。
5 Do you suppose there is no meaning in the passage of Scripture which asks — ‘Is envy to result from the longings of the Spirit which God has implanted within you?’
难道你不记得经文中说：“上帝放在我们身体中的灵，非常善妒”？
6 No; the gift that God gives is for a nobler end; and that is why it is said — ‘God is opposed to the haughty, but gives help to the humble.’
但上帝给我们的恩典更大；所以经文说：“上帝抵挡骄傲之人，赐予谦卑之人恩典。”
7 Therefore submit to God; but resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.
所以请遵循上帝的指引，抵抗魔鬼，魔鬼就会从你们这里逃离。
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Make your hands clean, you sinners; and your hearts pure, you vacillating men!
亲近上帝，上帝就亲近你们。罪人们啊，洗净你们的手；三心两意之人啊，净化你们的思想。
9 Grieve, mourn, and lament! Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your happiness to gloom!
表达你们的愁苦、悲哀和哭泣，把欢笑变为悲痛，把快乐变为忧愁。
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
你们在主面前务必要谦卑，他就会让你们高升。
11 Do not disparage one another, Brothers. He who disparages his Brother, or passes judgment on his Brother, disparages the Law and passes judgment on the Law. But, if you pass judgment on the Law, you are not obeying it, but judging it.
朋友们，不要互相毁谤；一个人如果批判其他信徒，谴责他们，就等于批判和谴责律法。如果你批判律法，就不会遵守律法，因为你扮演了审判律法的角色。
12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge — he who has the power both to save and to destroy. But who are you that pass judgment on your neighbour?
只有一个立法者和审判者——那就是可以拯救、也可以毁灭你的上帝。那么你审判邻居，你认为自己是谁？
13 Listen to me, you who say ‘To-day or to-morrow we will go to such and such a town, spend a year there, and trade, and make money,’
你们会说：“今天或明天，我们要到某个城市去，在那里住一年，做生意赚钱。”
14 And yet you do not know what your life will be like to-morrow! For you are but a mist appearing for a little while and then disappearing.
其实你们并不知道明天会怎样。你们的生命像什么？它只是一团雾，出现一小会儿，然后就不见了。
15 You ought, rather, to say ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’
你们倒不如说：“如果主愿意，我们就可以这样活着，计划做什么事。”
16 But, as it is, you are constantly boasting presumptuously! All such boasting is wicked.
但现在你们竟然张狂自夸；这种自夸是邪恶。
17 He, then, who knows what is right but fails to do it — that is sin in him.
因为如果你明知道该行善，却没有这么做，就是你的罪。
