New Living Translation

New King James Version

Drawing Close to God

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?

1

Pride Promotes Strife

Where do [a]wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

2

You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.

2

You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and [b]war. [c]Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

3

And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong — you want only what will give you pleasure.

3

You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4

You adulterers!a Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.

4

[d]Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5

Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him.b

5

Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

6

And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”c

6

But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”

7

So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

7

Humility Cures Worldliness

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

8

Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

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

Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.

9

Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

10

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

10

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

11

Warning against Judging Others

Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters.d If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you.

11

Do Not Judge a Brother

Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

12

God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?

12

There is one [e]Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who[f] are you to judge [g]another?

13

Warning about Self-Confidence

Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.”

13

Do Not Boast About Tomorrow

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow [h]we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;

14

How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog — it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.

14

whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

15

What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”

15

Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

16

Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.

16

But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

17

Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

17

Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Parallel

New Living Translation

New King James Version

James 4

James 4