A Warning against Pride 1 UDB Now I will tell you why you are fighting among yourselves and quarreling with each other. It is because each of you wants to do the evil things that you enjoy doing, things that do not please your fellow believers. BSB BSB: What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?
2 UDB There are things that you very much desire to have, but you do not get those things, so you want to kill those who hinder you from getting them. You desire what other people have, but you are unable to get what you desire, so you quarrel and fight with one another. You do not have what you desire, because you do not ask God for it. 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 UDB Even when you do ask him, he does not give you what you ask for because you are asking for the wrong reason. You are asking for things in order that you may use them just to enjoy yourselves in bad ways. 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 UDB Like a woman who is unfaithful to her husband, you are being unfaithful to God and not obeying him anymore. Those who behave as evil people do belong to this world and are enemies against God. Perhaps you do not realize that. 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 UDB Surely you do not think that it is for no reason that God told us in the scriptures that the Spirit he placed in us yearns for us to live our lives in ways that please him. BSB BSB: Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy?
6 UDB But God is powerful and very kind to us, and he wants very much to help us stop sinning. That is why the scripture says, "God opposes those who are proud, but he helps those who are 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 UDB So submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and as a result he will run away from you. BSB BSB: Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 UDB Come near spiritually to God. If you do, he will come near to you. You who are sinners, turn away from doing what is wrong and do only what is good. You who cannot decide whether you will commit yourselves to God, stop thinking wrong thoughts, and think only his thoughts. 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 UDB Be sorrowful and weep because of the wrong that you have done. Do not laugh, enjoying only what you selfishly desire. Instead, be sad because you have done what is wrong. BSB BSB: Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
10 UDB Humble yourselves before the Lord; if you do, he will honor you. BSB BSB: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.
11 UDB My brothers and sisters, stop speaking evil against one another because those who speak evil against a fellow believer and thus condemn one who is like a brother or sister to them are really speaking against the law that God gave us to obey. If you speak against his law, you are acting like a judge who condemns it. 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 UDB But in fact, there is only one who has the authority to forgive our evil and to condemn people, and that is God. He alone is able to save people or to destroy people. You certainly have no right to take God's place and judge others. 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)
14 UDB You should not talk like that, because you do not know what will happen tomorrow, and you do not know how long you will live! Your life is short, like a mist that appears for a short time and then disappears. 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 UDB Instead of what you are saying, you should say, "If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this, or we will do that." BSB BSB: Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.”
16 UDB But what you are doing is boasting about all the things that you plan to do. Your boasting like that is evil. BSB BSB: As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.
17 UDB So if anyone knows the right thing that he should do, but he does not do it, he is sinning. 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.