James 4

CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 Where do wars and contentions among you come from? Is it not from this: from your own desires, which battle within your members?	1 Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?
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.	2 You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You do not possess because you do not ask.
3 You ask and you do not receive, because you ask badly, so that you may use it toward your own desires.	3 You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
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.	4 Adulterers! Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5 Or do you think that Scripture says in vain: “The spirit which lives within you desires unto envy?”	5 Or do you suppose that the scripture speaks without meaning when it says, "The spirit that he has made to dwell in us tends toward jealousy"?
6 But he gives a greater grace. Therefore he says: “God resists the arrogant, but he gives grace to the humble.”	6 But he bestows a greater grace; therefore, it says: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
7 Therefore, be subject to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.	7 So submit yourselves 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 duplicitous souls!	8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you of two minds.
9 Be afflicted: mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your gladness into sorrow.	9 Begin to lament, to mourn, to weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection.
10 Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.	10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.
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.	11 Do not speak evil of one another, brothers. Whoever speaks evil of a brother or judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
12 There is one lawgiver and one judge. He is able to destroy, and he is able to set free.	12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save or to destroy. Who then are you to judge your neighbor?
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,”	13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town, spend a year there doing business, and make a profit"--
14 consider that you do not know what will be tomorrow.	14 you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.
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.	15 Instead you should say, "If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that."
16 But now you exult in your arrogance. All such exultation is wicked.	16 But now you are boasting in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, he who knows that he ought to do a good thing, and does not do it, for him it is a sin.	17 So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, it is a sin.