James 4

NEW JERUSALEM	LXX
1 Where do these wars and battles between yourselves first start? Is it not precisely in the desiresfighting inside your own selves?
2 You want something and you lack it; so you kil . You have an ambition that you cannot satisfy; so youfight to get your way by force. It is because you do not pray that you do not receive;
3 when you do pray and do not receive, it is because you prayed wrongly, wanting to indulge yourpassions.
4 Adulterers! Do you not realise that love for the world is hatred for God? Anyone who chooses the worldfor a friend is constituted an enemy of God.
5 Can you not see the point of the saying in scripture, 'The longing of the spirit he sent to dwel in us is ajealous longing.'?
6 But he has given us an even greater grace, as scripture says: God opposes the proud but he accordshis favour to the humble.
7 Give in to God, then; resist the devil, and he wil run away from you.
8 The nearer you go to God, the nearer God wil come to you. Clean your hands, you sinners, and clearyour minds, you waverers.
9 Appreciate your wretchedness, and weep for it in misery. Your laughter must be turned to grief, yourhappiness to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he wil lift you up.
11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who slanders a brother, or condemns one, is speakingagainst the Law and condemning the Law. But if you condemn the Law, you have ceased to be subject to it andbecome a judge over it.
12 There is only one lawgiver and he is the only judge and has the power to save or to destroy. Who areyou to give a verdict on your neighbour?
13 Wel now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow, we are off to this or that town; we are going to spend ayear there, trading, and make some money.'
14 You never know what wil happen tomorrow: you are no more than a mist that appears for a little whileand then disappears.
15 Instead of this, you should say, 'If it is the Lord's wil , we shal stil be alive to do this or that.'
16 But as it is, how boastful and loud -- mouthed you are! Boasting of this kind is always wrong.
17 Everyone who knows what is the right thing to do and does not do it commits a sin.