Proud or Humble

1What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from the cravingsa that are at war within you?b 2You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask. 3You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your evil desires.c

4Adulteresses!d, e Don’t you know that friendship with the •world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy.f 5Or do you think it’s without reason the Scripture says that the Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously?g, h

6But He gives greater grace. Therefore He says:

God resists the proud,

but gives grace to the humble.i, j

7Therefore, submit to God. But resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.k 8Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people!l 9Be miserable and mourn and weep. Your laughter must change to mourning and your joy to sorrow.m 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

11Don’t criticize one another, •brothers. He who criticizes a brother or judges his brother criticizes the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.n 12There is one lawgiver and judgeo who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?p

Our Will and His Will

13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”q 14You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring — what your life will be! For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes.r

15Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.s 17So it is a sin for the person who knows to do what is good and doesn’t do it.t