Chapter 4
1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from ? Don’ t they come from your pleasures that 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.
3 You ask, and don’ t receive , because you ask with wrong motives , so that you may spend it on your pleasures .
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 .
5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain , " The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously "?
6 But he gives more grace . Therefore it says , " God resists the proud , but gives grace to the humble ."
7 Be subject therefore 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 .
9 Lament, mourn , and weep . Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom .
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord , and he will exalt you .
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 .
12 Only one is the lawgiver , who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge 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 ."
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.
15 For you ought to say , " If the Lord wills , we will both live , and do this or that ."
16 But now you glory in your boasting . All such boasting is evil .
17 To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn’t do it , to him it is sin.