James 4

1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?

Whence [come] wars and whence [come] fightings among you? [come they] not hence, [even] of 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.

Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not.

3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend [it] in 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.

Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?

Or think ye that the scripture speaketh in vain? Doth the spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envying?

6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

But he giveth more grace. Wherefore [the scripture] saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.

7 Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Be subject therefore unto God; but 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.

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye doubleminded.

9 Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall 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.

Speak not one against another, brethren. He that speaketh against a brother, or judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judgest the law, thou art 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?

One [only] is the lawgiver and judge, [even] he who is able to save and to destroy: but who art thou that judgest thy neighbour?

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.”

Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain:

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.

whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

15 For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”

For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that.

16 But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.

But now ye glory in your vauntings: all such glorying is evil.

17 To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.