Jam 4 | LSB | STEP | What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?

‏ James 4

Draw Near to God

1 ^{▼▼ Lit From where wars and from where fightings}What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? ^{▼▼Lit Are they not from here, from your}Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have, so you murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask ^{▼▼Lit wickedly}with wrong motives, so that you may spend it ^{▼▼Lit in}on your pleasures. 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world sets himself as an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “ ^{▼▼Or The spirit which He has made to dwell in us lusts with envy}He ^{▼▼Lit desires to jealousy}jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? 6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to 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, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and cry. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

11 Do not slander one another, brothers. He who slanders a brother or judges his brother, slanders the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you who judge your neighbor?

Life Is a Vapor

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 ^{▼▼Lit Who do not}Yet you do not know ^{▼▼Or what will happen tomorrow. What kind of life is yours?}what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 ^{▼▼Lit Instead of your saying}Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your ^{▼▼Or pretensions}arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to one who knows to do the ^{▼▼Or good}right thing and does not do it, to him it is sin.