| Holman Christian Standard Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don't they come from the cravings that are at war within you? | 1What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? |
| 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. | 2You 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. |
| 3You ask and don't receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your evil desires. | 3And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. |
| 4Adulteresses! 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. | 4You adulterers! 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. |
| 5Or do you think it's without reason the Scripture says that the Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously? | 5Do 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. |
| 6But He gives greater grace. Therefore He says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. | 6And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” |
| 7Therefore, submit to God. But resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. | 7So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. |
| 8Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people! | 8Come 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. |
| 9Be miserable and mourn and weep. Your laughter must change to mourning and your joy to sorrow. | 9Let 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. |
| 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you. | 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor. Warning against Judging Others |
| 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. | 11Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. 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. |
| 12There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? | 12God 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? Warning about Self-Confidence |
| 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." | 13Look 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.” |
| 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. | 14How 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. |
| 15Instead, you should say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." | 15What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” |
| 16But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. | 16Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil. |
| 17So it is a sin for the person who knows to do what is good and doesn't do it. | 17Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. |
| Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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