James 4

1 Where do quarrels and disputes among you come from? Do they not come from your desires that fight among your members?

Whence [come] wars and whence fightings among you? [Is it] not thence, — from your pleasures, which war in your members?

2 You desire, and you do not have. You kill and covet, and you are not able to obtain. You fight and quarrel. You do not possess because you do not ask.

Ye lust and have not: ye kill and are full of envy, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war; ye have not because ye ask not.

3 You ask and do not receive because you ask badly, in order that you may use it for your desires.

Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask evilly, that ye may consume [it] in your pleasures.

4 You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility against God? So whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Adulteresses, know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore is minded to be [the] friend of the world is constituted enemy of God.

5 Or do you think the scripture says in vain, “The Spirit he caused to live in us is deeply jealous”?

Think ye that the scripture speaks in vain? Does the Spirit which has taken his abode in us desire enviously?

6 But God gives more grace, so the scripture says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

But he gives more grace. Wherefore he says, God sets himself against [the] proud, but gives grace to [the] lowly.

7 So submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Subject yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8 Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse [your] hands, sinners, and purify [your] hearts, ye double-minded.

9 Grieve, mourn, and cry! Let your laughter turn into sadness and your joy into gloom.

Be wretched, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and [your] joy to heaviness.

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

Humble yourselves before [the] Lord, and he shall exalt you.

11 Do not speak against one another, brothers. The person who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.

Speak not against one another, brethren. He that speaks against [his] brother, or judges his brother, speaks against [the] law and judges [the] law. But if thou judgest [the] law, thou art not doer of [the] law, but judge.

12 Only one is the lawgiver and judge. He is the one who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you, you who judge your neighbor?

One is the lawgiver and judge, who is able to save and to destroy: but who art thou who judgest thy neighbour?

13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.”

Go to now, ye who say, To-day or to-morrow will we go into such a city and spend a year there, and traffic and make gain,

14 Who knows what will happen tomorrow, and what is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears.

ye who do not know what will be on the morrow, ([for] what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, appearing for a little while, and then disappearing, )

15 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.”

instead of your saying, If the Lord should [so] will and we should live, we will also do this or that.

16 But now you are boasting about your arrogant plans. All such boasting is evil.

But now ye glory in your vauntings: all such glorying is evil.

17 So for anyone who knows to do good but does not do it, for him it is sin.

To him therefore who knows how to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.