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‛aqoḇ (James) 4
4
1Where do fightings and strivings come from among you? Do they not come from your pleasures that battle in your members?
2You desire, and do not have. You murder, and are jealous, and are unable to obtain. You strive and fight, and you do not possess, because you do not ask.
3You ask and do not receive, because you ask evilly, in order to spend it on your pleasures.
4Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with Elohim?#See Mat. 13:22; Luke 4:5-6; Luke 14:33; Rom. 12:2; 1John 2:15-17 Whoever therefore intends to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of Elohim.
5Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose? Does the Spirit which dwells in us intensely crave unto envy?
6But He gives greater favour. Because of this He says, “Elohim resists the proud, but gives favour to the humble.”# Pro. 3:34
7So then subject yourselves to Elohim. Resist the devil#Or adversary. and he shall flee from you.
8Draw near to Elohim and He shall draw near to you. Cleanse hands, sinners. And cleanse the hearts, you double-minded!
9Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection.
10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Master, and He shall lift you up.
11Brothers, do not speak against one another. He that speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against Torah and judges Torah. And if you judge Torah, you are not a doer of Torah but a judge.
12There is one Lawgiver and Judge, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow, let us go to such and such a city, spend a year there, and trade, and make a profit,”
14when you do not know of tomorrow. For what is your life? For it is a vapour that appears for a little, and then disappears –
15instead of your saying, “If the Master desires, we shall live and do this or that.”
16But now you boast in your proud speeches. All such boasting is wicked.
17To him, then, who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
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