Draw Near to God

1[†]What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? [†]Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2You lust and do not have, so you murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask [†]with wrong motives, so that you may spend it [†]on your pleasures. 4You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world sets himself as an enemy of God. 5Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “[†]He [†]jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? 6But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” 7Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Be miserable and mourn and cry. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

11Do not slander one another, brothers. He who slanders a brother or 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 of it. 12There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you who judge your neighbor?

Life Is a Vapor

13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14[†]Yet you do not know [†]what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15[†]Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” 16But as it is, you boast in your [†]arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17Therefore, to one who knows to do the [†]right thing and does not do it, to him it is sin.