James 4

1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?

Whence come wars and strifes among you? Come they not hence, even of your passions, which war in your members?

2 You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.

You desire, and you have not; you kill, and are earnestly desirous of having, and yet you can not obtain; you fight and war, and yet you have not, because you ask not.

3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your passions.

4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t 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.

Adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity to God? Whoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?

Do you suppose that the scripture speaks to no purpose? Does the Spirit that dwells in us incline to envy? No.

6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists 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 Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Submit yourselves, therefore, to God; resist the devil, and he will flee from you;

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.

draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded men.

9 Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to sorrow.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 Don’t 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.

Do not speak evil one of another, brethren. He that speaks evil of his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law: but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12 Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

There is one law-giver that is able to save, and to destroy: who are you that judge another?

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.”

Come, now, you that say, Let us go to-day, or to-morrow, into this city, and remain there a year, and trade, and make gain;

14 Yet you don’t 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.

and yet you know not what will take place to-morrow. For what is your life? Is it not, indeed, a vapor, that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away?

15 For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”

Instead of that, you ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

16 But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.

But now you glory in your boastings: all such glorying is evil.

17 To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

Therefore, to him that knows how to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.