1 Whence wars and fightings among you? are they not hence, -- from your lusts which war in your members?

2 Ye covet and have not; ye envy and emulate, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye do not ask;

3 Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it on your lusts.

4 Adulterers and adulteresses! know ye not, that the friendship of the world is enmity to God? Whosoever then will be a friend of the world, becomes the enemy of God.

5 Do ye think that the Scripture speaks in vain? Does the Spirit who dwells in us, lust to envy?

6 Nay, he giveth more grace: hence He saith, God resists the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.

7 Be ye then subject to God; resist the devil and he will flee from you.

8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you: cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.

9 Be afflicted and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to sorrow.

10 Be humbled before God, and he will exalt you.

11 Defame not one another, brethren; he who defames a brother and judges his brother, defames the law and judges the law; but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12 One is the lawgiver, who can save and destroy; who art thou who judgest another?

13 Come now ye who say, |To-day, or, to-morrow, we shall go into the city and pass there a year, and trade and make gain:| who know not what is to be to-morrow; for what is your life?

14 It is indeed a vapor, which for a short time appears, and then vanishes away.

15 On the contrary ye ought to say, |If the Lord will, and we live, we shall do this or that.| But now ye glory in your presumptions: all such glorying is evil. He then who knows to do good and doeth it not, is guilty of sin.