Pride Promotes Strife

4 Where do ^[a]wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure ^(A)that war in your members? 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 (B)You ask and do not receive, ^(C)because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. ^4 [d]Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that ^(D)friendship with the world is enmity with God? ^(E)Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ^(F)“The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

⁶ But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:

Humility Cures Worldliness

⁷ Therefore submit to God. ^(H)Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ^8 (I)Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. ^(J)Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and ^(K)purify your hearts, you double-minded. ^9 (L)Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ^10 (M)Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Do Not Judge a Brother

^11 (N)Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother ^(O)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 There is one ^[e]Lawgiver, ^(P)who is able to save and to destroy. ^(Q)Who^[f] are you to judge ^[g]another?

Do Not Boast About Tomorrow

¹³ 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 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? ^(R)It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, ^(S)“If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you boast in your arrogance. ^(T)All such boasting is evil.

¹⁷ Therefore, ^(U)to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.