Is not worldliness

1Where do the wars and disputes among you come from? Is it not precisely from your pleasures, the ones at war in your members?

2You crave and do not have; you murder ⁵⁶and covet and are not able to obtain; you fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask.

3You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so that you may lavish it on your pleasures.

4Adulterers and ⁵⁷adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? So whoever may want to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵⁸

5Or do you suppose that the Scripture says in vain that the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? ⁵⁹

6But He gives greater grace; therefore He says: “God resists proud ones, but gives grace to humble ones.” ⁶⁰

Is submitting to God

7Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil ⁶¹and he will flee from you.

8Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. ⁶²Sinners, cleanse your hands! Double-minded, purify your hearts! ⁶³

9Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into dejection. ⁶⁴

10Humble yourself before the Lord and He will exalt you. ⁶⁵

Does not judge the different brother

11Brothers, do not speak evil of one another. Because the one speaking against a brother and judging his brother speaks against a law and judges a law. So if you judge a law you are not a law-doer but a judge.

12The Lawgiver and Judge ⁶⁶is One, the one who is able to save and to destroy. So who are you (sg) to be judging someone who is different? ⁶⁷

Does not boast about tomorrow

13Come now, you who say, “Today and tomorrow let us travel to that certain city, spend a year there, do business and make a profit;”

14whereas you do not know anything about the morrow. For what is our life? ⁶⁸It is even a vapor that appears for a little time but then vanishes away.

15Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

16But now you boast in your arrogant pretensions. All such boasting is malignant. ⁶⁹

17Therefore, to the one knowing to do good and not doing it, to him it is sin. ⁷⁰