James
Chapter 4
1 Where do your wars and battles with each other come from? Do they not come from your desires that battle within you?
2 You want things but don’t have them. You kill and are jealous but still cannot get what you want. You argue and fight but don’t have because you don’t ask.
3 You ask but don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, wanting only to satisfy your desires.
4 You unfaithful men and women, don’t you know that loving this world means being God’s enemy? So if anyone chooses to be the world’s friend, they become God’s enemy.
5 Do you think the scripture says without reason that the spirit in us longs for what others have?
6 He gives more kindness. So he says, God opposes the proud, but gives kindness to the humble.
7 Obey God, then. Stand up against the devil, and he will run away from you.
8 Come close to God, and He will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you who are unsure.
9 Feel sad, cry, and weep: may your laughter become crying, and your happiness become sadness.
10 Lower yourselves before God, and he will raise you up.
11 Do not speak badly about each other, friends. Whoever talks badly about a friend and judges them, speaks against the rules and judges the rules. But if you judge the rules, you are not following them but judging them.
12 There is one lawmaker, who can save and destroy: who are you to judge someone else?
13 Listen, those who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this city, stay there for a year, trade, and make a profit”:
14 You don’t know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? It is like a mist that appears for a short while and then disappears.
15 You should say, “If God wants, we will live and do this or that.”
16 But now you are happy with your bragging: all this kind of happiness is bad.
17 So if someone knows what is good to do and does not do it, for them it is wrong.