James 4
1 Whence [are] wars and fightings among you? not thence — out of your passions, that are as soldiers in your members?
FROM whence come wars and conflicts among you? spring they not from hence, even from your passions, which war in your members?
2 ye desire, and ye have not; ye murder, and are zealous, and are not able to attain; ye fight and war, and ye have not, because of your not asking;
Ye eagerly covet, yet have not: ye murder, and are envious, yet cannot obtain your object; ye wage war, but have not, because ye pray not.
3 ye ask, and ye receive not, because evilly ye ask, that in your pleasures ye may spend [it].
Ye ask, and receive nothing, because ye ask vilely, in order to consume it on your sensual appetites.
4 Adulterers and adulteresses! have ye not known that friendship of the world is enmity with God? whoever, then, may counsel to be a friend of the world, an enemy of God he is set.
Ye adulterers and adultresses, know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity against God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is set down an enemy to God.
5 Do ye think that emptily the Writing saith, 'To envy earnestly desireth the spirit that did dwell in us,'
Think ye that the scripture saith without meaning, The spirit which dwelleth in you strongly urges to envy?
6 and greater grace he doth give, wherefore he saith, 'God against proud ones doth set Himself up, and to lowly ones He doth give grace?'
But he giveth mightier grace. Wherefore he saith, “God sets himself against the proud, but giveth grace to the lowly.”
7 be subject, then, to God; stand up against the devil, and he will flee from you;
Be in subjection then to God. Resist the devil, and he will fly from you.
8 draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you; cleanse hands, ye sinners! and purify hearts, ye two-souled!
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Make clean your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.
9 be exceeding afflicted, and mourn, and weep, let your laughter to mourning be turned, and the joy to heaviness;
Be bitterly afflicted and lament, and let your tears run down; let your laughter be converted into mourning, and your joy into dejection.
10 be made low before the Lord, and He shall exalt you.
Be humbled in the presence of God, so he will exalt you.
11 Speak not one against another, brethren; he who is speaking against a brother, and is judging his brother, doth speak against law, and doth judge law, and if law thou dost judge, thou art not a doer of law but a judge;
Traduce not one another, brethren. He that traduceth his brother, and judgeth his brother, traduceth the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but as judge.
12 one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy; thou — who art thou that dost judge the other?
There is one lawgiver, who can save or destroy: who art thou that judgest another man?
13 Go, now, ye who are saying, 'To-day and to-morrow we will go on to such a city, and will pass there one year, and traffic, and make gain;'
Come now, ye that talk, To-day or to-morrow we will go to such a town, and do business there during one year, and traffic, and make great profits:
14 who do not know the thing of the morrow; for what is your life? for it is a vapour that is appearing for a little, and then is vanishing;
though ye know nothing of what shall be to-morrow. For what is your life? It is but a vapour which appeareth for a little while, and then vanishes away.
15 instead of your saying, 'If the Lord may will, we shall live, and do this or that;'
Instead of your saying, If the Lord pleases, and we are alive, then we will do this or that thing.
16 and now ye glory in your pride; all such glorying is evil;
But now ye glory in your proud boastings: all such glorying is wicked.
17 to him, then, knowing to do good, and not doing, sin it is to him.
Therefore if a man knoweth how to act properly, and doth not, he is criminal.
