Jacob 4
1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?
Whence wars and fightings among you? Do they not come hence, even from your lusts, 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 strongly desire, and have not; you kill, and are zealous, and can not obtain. You fight and war, but 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 do not receive, because you ask wickedly, that you may spend upon your lusts.
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, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity against God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is counted 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 think that the scripture speaks in vain? And does the spirit, who dwells in us, strongly incline to envy?
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
But he gives greater favor. For it says, "God resists the proud, but gives favor to the humble."
7 Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Therefore, be subject 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 nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you men of two minds.
9 Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Be exceedingly afflicted, and mourn, and weep; and let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into sadness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Be humble in the presence of the Lord, and he will lift you up.
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.
He who speaks against his brother, and condemns his brother, speaks against the law, and condemns the law. But if you condemn 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 lawgiver, who is able to save, and to destroy. Who are you, that condemn 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 who say, To-day, or to-morrow, we will go to such a city, and will abide there one year, and traffic in merchandise, and get 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.
who do not know what shall be to-morrow. For what is your life? It is, indeed, a smoke, which 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 which, 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 boast in your proud speeches: all such boasting is evil.
17 To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.
Wherefore, to him who know how to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.
