A Warning against Pride 1 CPDV Where do wars and contentions among you come from? Is it not from this: from your own desires, which battle within your members? BSB BSB: What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?
2 CPDV You desire, and you do not have. You envy and you kill, and you are unable to obtain. You argue and you fight, and you do not have, because you do not ask. BSB BSB: 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.
3 CPDV You ask and you do not receive, because you ask badly, so that you may use it toward your own desires. BSB BSB: And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.
4 CPDV You adulterers! Do you not know that the friendship of this world is hostile to God? Therefore, whoever has chosen to be a friend of this world has been made into an enemy of God. BSB BSB: 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.
5 CPDV Or do you think that Scripture says in vain: “The spirit which lives within you desires unto envy?” BSB BSB: Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy?
6 CPDV But he gives a greater grace. Therefore he says: “God resists the arrogant, but he gives grace to the humble.” BSB BSB: But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Drawing Near to God 7 CPDV Therefore, be subject to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. BSB BSB: Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 CPDV Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners! And purify your hearts, you duplicitous souls! BSB BSB: Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 CPDV Be afflicted: mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your gladness into sorrow. BSB BSB: Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
10 CPDV Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you. BSB BSB: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.
11 CPDV Brothers, do not choose to slander one another. Whoever slanders his brother, or whoever judges his brother, slanders the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. BSB BSB: 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.
12 CPDV There is one lawgiver and one judge. He is able to destroy, and he is able to set free. BSB BSB: There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Do Not Boast about Tomorrow (Proverbs 27:1)
13 CPDV But who are you to judge your neighbor? Consider this, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into that city, and certainly we will spend a year there, and we will do business, and we will make our profit,” BSB BSB: 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.” 14 CPDV consider that you do not know what will be tomorrow. BSB BSB: 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.
15 CPDV For what is your life? It is a mist that appears for a brief time, and afterwards will vanish away. So what you ought to say is: “If the Lord wills,” or, “If we live,” we will do this or that. BSB BSB: Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.”
16 CPDV But now you exult in your arrogance. All such exultation is wicked. BSB BSB: As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.
17 CPDV Therefore, he who knows that he ought to do a good thing, and does not do it, for him it is a sin. BSB BSB: Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.