James 4
4
Stop Fighting with Each Other
1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Aren’t they caused by the selfish desires that fight to control you? 2You want what you don’t have, so you commit murder. You’re determined to have things, but you can’t get what you want. You quarrel and fight. You don’t have the things you want, because you don’t pray for them. 3When you pray for things, you don’t get them because you want them for the wrong reason—for your own pleasure.
4You unfaithful people! Don’t you know that love for this ⌞evil⌟ world is hatred toward God? Whoever wants to be a friend of this world is an enemy of God. 5Do you think this passage means nothing? It says, “The Spirit that lives in us wants us to be his own.”
6But God shows us even more kindness.#4:6 Or “grace.” Scripture says,
“God opposes arrogant people,
but he is kind to humble people.”
7So place yourselves under God’s authority. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you. 8Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Clean up your lives, you sinners, and clear your minds, you doubters. 9Be miserable, mourn, and cry. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into gloom. 10Humble yourselves in the Lord’s presence. Then he will give you a high position.
Stop Slandering Each Other
11Brothers and sisters, stop slandering each other. Those who slander and judge other believers slander and judge God’s laws. If you judge God’s teachings, you are no longer following them. Instead, you are judging them. 12There is only one who creates laws and judges on the basis of them. He is able to save or destroy you. So who are you to judge your neighbor?
Don’t Brag about Your Plans for the Future
13Pay attention to this! You’re saying, “Today or tomorrow we will go into some city, stay there a year, conduct business, and make money.” 14You don’t know what will happen tomorrow. What is life? You are a mist that is seen for a moment and then disappears. 15Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and carry out our plans.” 16However, you brag because you’re arrogant. All such bragging is evil.
17Whoever knows what is right but doesn’t do it is sinning.
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James 4: GW
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
Ya'akov (Jas) 4
4
1What is causing all the quarrels and fights among you? Isn’t it your desires battling inside you? 2You desire things and don’t have them. You kill, and you are jealous, and you still can’t get them. So you fight and quarrel. The reason you don’t have is that you don’t pray! 3Or you pray and don’t receive, because you pray with the wrong motive, that of wanting to indulge your own desires.
4You unfaithful wives! Don’t you know that loving the world is hating God? Whoever chooses to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy! 5Or do you suppose the Scripture speaks in vain when it says that there is a spirit in us which longs to envy? 6But the grace he gives is greater, which is why it says,
“God opposes the arrogant,
but to the humble he gives grace.”
7Therefore, submit to God. Moreover, take a stand against the Adversary, and he will flee from you. 8Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Clean your hands, sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded people! 9Wail, mourn, sob! Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom! 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
11Brothers, stop speaking against each other! Whoever speaks against a brother or judges a brother is speaking against Torah and judging Torah. And if you judge Torah, you are not a doer of what Torah says, but a judge. 12There is but one Giver of Torah; he is also the Judge, with the power to deliver and to destroy. Who do you think you are, judging your fellow human being?
13Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such-and-such a city, stay there a year trading and make a profit”! 14You don’t even know if you will be alive tomorrow! For all you are is a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears. 15Instead, you ought to say, “If Adonai wants it to happen, we will live” to do this or that. 16But as it is, in your arrogance you boast. All such boasting is evil. 17So then, anyone who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it is committing a sin.
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