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?
Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Do not they come from your pleasures that war in your members?
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.
You lust, and do not have. You murder and covet, and cannot obtain. You fight and make war. You do not have, because you do not ask.
3 You ask, yet do not receive, because you ask for a wrong purpose — to spend what you get upon your pleasures.
You ask, and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
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.
You adulterers and adulteresses, do not you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
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?’
Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?
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.’
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Therefore submit to God; but resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.
Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
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!
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Grieve, mourn, and lament! Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your happiness to gloom!
Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
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.
Do not speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and 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 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?
Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?
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,’
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.”
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.
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
15 You ought, rather, to say ‘If the Lord wills, we shall 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 But, as it is, you are constantly boasting presumptuously! All such boasting is wicked.
But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.
17 He, then, who knows what is right but fails to do it — that is sin in him.
To him therefore who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
