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?

What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?

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 crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. 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.

And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander 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 adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders 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 the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy?

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 us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

7 Therefore submit to God; but resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.

Submit yourselves, then, 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, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9 Grieve, mourn, and lament! Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your happiness to gloom!

Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Humble yourselves before 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.

Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. And if you judge the law, you are not a practitioner of the law, but a judge of it.

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?

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

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 we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, 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.

You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

15 You ought, rather, to say ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’

Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.”

16 But, as it is, you are constantly boasting presumptuously! All such boasting is wicked.

As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.

17 He, then, who knows what is right but fails to do it — that is sin in him.

Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin.