| New Living Translation | NET Bible |
| 1What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? | 1Where do the conflicts and where do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, from your passions that battle inside you? |
| 2You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. | 2You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask; |
| 3And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. | 3you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions. |
| 4You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. | 4Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever decides to be the world's friend makes himself God's enemy. |
| 5Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. | 5Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, "The spirit that God caused to live within us has an envious yearning"? |
| 6And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” | 6But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble." |
| 7So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. | 7So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you. |
| 8Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. | 8Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded. |
| 9Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. | 9Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into despair. |
| 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor. Warning against Judging Others | 10Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. |
| 11Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. | 11Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. He who speaks against a fellow believer or judges a fellow believer speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but its judge. |
| 12God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor? Warning about Self-Confidence | 12But there is only one who is lawgiver and judge--the one who is able to save and destroy. On the other hand, who are you to judge your neighbor? |
| 13Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” | 13Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town and spend a year there and do business and make a profit." |
| 14How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. | 14You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes. |
| 15What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” | 15You ought to say instead, "If the Lord is willing, then we will live and do this or that." |
| 16Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil. | 16But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. |
| 17Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. | 17So whoever knows what is good to do and does not do it is guilty of sin. |
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