CHAPTER 4
What causes
conflicts
and
quarrels
among
you?
Don’t they
come
from
the
passions
at war
within
you?
You crave
what
you do not
have.
You kill
and
covet,
but
are unable
to obtain it.
You quarrel
and
fight.
You do not have,
because
you
do not
ask.
And when you do ask,
you do not
receive,
because
you ask
with wrong motives,
that
you may squander it
on
your
pleasures.
You adulteresses!
Do you not know
that
friendship
with the
world
is
hostility
toward
God?
Therefore,
whoever
chooses
to be
a friend
of the
world
renders himself
an enemy
of God.
Or
do you think
the
Scripture
says
without reason that
the
Spirit
He caused to dwell
in
us
yearns
with
envy?
But
He gives us
more
grace.
This is why
it says:
“God
opposes
the proud,
but
gives
grace
to the humble.”
Draw near
to God,
and
He will draw near
to you.
Cleanse
your hands,
you sinners,
and
purify
your hearts,
you double-minded.
Brothers,
{do] not
slander
one another.
Anyone who
speaks against
his brother
or
judges
him
speaks against
the Law
and
judges
it.
And
if
you judge
the Law,
you are
not
a practitioner
of the Law,
but
a judge of it.
There is
only one
Lawgiver
and
Judge,
the One who
is able
to save
and
destroy.
But
who
are
you
to judge
your
neighbor?
Come
now,
you who
say,
“Today
or
tomorrow
we will go
to
this or that
city,
spend
a year
there,
carry on business,
and
make a profit.”
You
do not even know
what will happen
tomorrow!
What is
your
life?
You are
a mist
that appears
for a little while
and
then
vanishes.