1 W hat starts wars and fights among you? Is it not because you want many things and are fighting to have them?

What leads to strife (discord and feuds) and how do conflicts (quarrels and fightings) originate among you? Do they not arise from your sensual desires that are ever warring in your bodily members?

2 Y ou want something you do not have, so you kill. You want something but cannot get it, so you fight for it. You do not get things because you do not ask for them.

You are jealous and covet and your desires go unfulfilled; you become murderers. You burn with envy and anger and are not able to obtain, so you fight and war. You do not have, because you do not ask.

3 O r if you do ask, you do not receive because your reasons for asking are wrong. You want these things only to please yourselves.

you do ask and yet fail to receive, because you ask with wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is to spend it in sensual pleasures.

4 Y ou are as wives and husbands who are not faithful in marriage and do sex sins. Do you not know that to love the sinful things of the world and to be a friend to them is to be against God? Yes, I say it again, if you are a friend of the world, you are against God.

You unfaithful wives! Do you not know that being the world’s friend is being God’s enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world takes his stand as an enemy of God.

5 D o you think the Holy Writings mean nothing when they said, “The Holy Spirit Whom God has given to live in us has a strong desire for us to be faithful to Him”?

Or do you suppose that the Scripture is speaking to no purpose that says, The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us and He yearns for the Spirit with a jealous love?

6 B ut He gives us more loving-favor. For the Holy Writings say, “God works against the proud but gives loving-favor to those who have no pride.”

But He gives us more and more grace ( power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully). That is why He says, God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it).

7 S o give yourselves to God. Stand against the devil and he will run away from you.

So be subject to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8 C ome close to God and He will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners. Clean up your hearts, you who want to follow the sinful ways of the world and God at the same time.

Come close to God and He will come close to you. sinners, get your soiled hands clean; wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts.

9 B e sorry for your sins and cry because of them. Be sad and do not laugh. Let your joy be turned to sorrow.

be deeply penitent and grieve, even weep. Let your laughter be turned to grief and your mirth to dejection and heartfelt shame.

10 L et yourself be brought low before the Lord. Then He will lift you up and help you. Do Not Talk Against Each Other

Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

11 C hristian brothers, do not talk against anyone or speak bad things about each other. If a person says bad things about his brother, he is speaking against him. And he will be speaking against God’s Law. If you say the Law is wrong, and do not obey it, you are saying you are better than the Law.

brethren, do not speak evil about or accuse one another. He that maligns a brother or judges his brother is maligning and criticizing the Law and judging the Law. But if you judge the Law, you are not a practicer of the Law but a censor and judge.

12 O nly God can say what is right or wrong. He made the Law. He can save or put to death. How can we say if our brother is right or wrong?

One only is the Lawgiver and Judge Who is able to save and to destroy. who are you that pass judgment on your neighbor?

13 L isten! You who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this city and stay a year and make money.”

Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and carry on our business and make money.

14 Y ou do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? It is like fog. You see it and soon it is gone.

Yet you do not know about what may happen tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? You are but a wisp of vapor (a puff of smoke, a mist) that is visible for a little while and then disappears.

15 W hat you should say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”

You ought instead to say, If the Lord is willing, we shall live and we shall do this or that.

16 B ut instead you are proud. You talk loud and big about yourselves. All such pride is sin.

But as it is, you boast in your presumption and your self-conceit. All such boasting is wrong.

17 I f you know what is right to do but you do not do it, you sin.

So any person who knows what is right to do but does not do it, to him it is sin.