CHAPTER 4

1 Whence wars and fightings among you? are they not hence,--from your lusts which war in your members?

2 Ye covet and have not; ye envy and emulate, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye do not ask;

3 Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it on your lusts.

4 Adulterers and adulteresses! know ye not, that the friendship of the world is enmity to God? Whosoever then will be a friend of the world, becomes the enemy of God.

5 Do ye think that the Scripture speaks in vain? Does the Spirit who dwells in us, lust to envy?

6 Nay, he giveth more grace: hence He saith, God resists the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.

7 Be ye then subject to God; resist the devil and he will flee from you.

8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you: cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.

9 Be afflicted and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to sorrow.

10 Be humbled before God, and he will exalt you.

11 Defame not one another, brethren; he who defames a brother and judges his brother, defames the law and judges the law; but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12 One is the lawgiver, who can save and destroy; who art thou who judgest another?

13 Come now ye who say, “To-day, or, to-morrow, we shall go into the city and pass there a year, and trade and make gain:” who know not what is to be to-morrow; for what is your life?

14 It is indeed a vapor, which for a short time appears, and then vanishes away.

15 On the contrary ye ought to say, “If the Lord will, and we live, we shall do this or that.” But now ye glory in your presumptions: all such glorying is evil. He then who knows to do good and doeth it not, is guilty of sin.