James 4

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 Where do these wars and battles between yourselves first start? Is it not precisely in the desiresfighting inside your own selves?	1 Where do wars and contentions among you come from? Is it not from this: from your own desires, which battle within your members?
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;	2 You desire, and you do not have. You envy and you kill, and you are unable to obtain. You argue and you fight, and you do not have, because you do not ask.
3 when you do pray and do not receive, it is because you prayed wrongly, wanting to indulge yourpassions.	3 You ask and you do not receive, because you ask badly, so that you may use it toward your own desires.
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.	4 You adulterers! Do you not know that the friendship of this world is hostile to God? Therefore, whoever has chosen to be a friend of this world has been made into 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.'?	5 Or do you think that Scripture says in vain: “The spirit which lives within you desires unto envy?”
6 But he has given us an even greater grace, as scripture says: God opposes the proud but he accordshis favour to the humble.	6 But he gives a greater grace. Therefore he says: “God resists the arrogant, but he gives grace to the humble.”
7 Give in to God, then; resist the devil, and he wil run away from you.	7 Therefore, be subject to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee 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.	8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners! And purify your hearts, you duplicitous souls!
9 Appreciate your wretchedness, and weep for it in misery. Your laughter must be turned to grief, yourhappiness to gloom.	9 Be afflicted: mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your gladness into sorrow.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he wil lift you up.	10 Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
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.	11 Brothers, do not choose to slander one another. Whoever slanders his brother, or whoever 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.
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?	12 There is one lawgiver and one judge. He is able to destroy, and he is able to set free.
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.'	13 But who are you to judge your neighbor? Consider this, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into that city, and certainly we will spend a year there, and we will do business, and we will make our profit,”
14 You never know what wil happen tomorrow: you are no more than a mist that appears for a little whileand then disappears.	14 consider that you do not know what will be tomorrow.
15 Instead of this, you should say, 'If it is the Lord's wil , we shal stil be alive to do this or that.'	15 For what is your life? It is a mist that appears for a brief time, and afterwards will vanish away. So what you ought to say is: “If the Lord wills,” or, “If we live,” we will do this or that.
16 But as it is, how boastful and loud -- mouthed you are! Boasting of this kind is always wrong.	16 But now you exult in your arrogance. All such exultation is wicked.
17 Everyone who knows what is the right thing to do and does not do it commits a sin.	17 Therefore, he who knows that he ought to do a good thing, and does not do it, for him it is a sin.