41 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members ? 2 You lust and do not have ; so you commit murder . You are envious and cannot e obtain ; so you fight and quarrel . You do not have because you do not ask . 3 You ask and do not receive , because you ask with wrong motives , so that you may spend it on your pleasures . 4 You adulteresses , do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God ? Therefore whoever e wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God . 5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose : "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"? 6 But He gives a greater grace . Therefore it says , " GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD , BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE ." 7 Submit therefore to God . Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands , you sinners ; and purify your hearts , you double-minded . 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep ; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom . 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord , and He will exalt you.
11 Do not speak against one another , brethren . He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother , speaks against 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. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge , the One who is able to save and to destroy ; but who are you who judge your neighbor ?
13 Come 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 just 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." 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance ; all such boasting is evil . 17 Therefore , to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin .
31 Let not many of you become teachers , my brethren , knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment . 2 For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says , he is a perfect man , able to bridle the whole body as well . 3 Now if we put the bits into the horses' mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well . 4 Look at the ships also , though they are so great and are driven by strong winds , are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires . 5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things . See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire ! 6 And the tongue is a fire , the very world of iniquity ; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body , and sets on fire the course of our life , and is set on fire by hell . 7 For every species of beasts and birds , of reptiles and creatures of the sea , is tamed and has been tamed by the human race . 8 But no one e can tame the tongue ; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison . 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father , and with it we curse men , who have been made in the likeness of God ; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing . My brethren , these things ought not to be this way . 11 Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? 12 Can a fig tree , my brethren , produce olives , or a vine produce figs ? Nor can salt water produce fresh .
13 Who among you is wise and understanding ? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom . 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart , do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth . 15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above , but is earthly , natural , demonic . 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing . 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure , then peaceable , gentle , reasonable , full of mercy and good fruits , unwavering , without hypocrisy . 18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace .
