雅各书 4
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Simplified)
不要与世俗为友
4 你们彼此冲突、互相斗殴的起因是什么呢？不就是你们身体中不断交战的欲望吗？ 2 你们贪心，得不到就去杀人。你们嫉妒，得不到就争吵、打斗。你们得不到是因为你们不向上帝祈求。 3 你们求也得不到是因为你们动机不纯，只求享乐和满足自己的欲望。 4 你们这些对主不忠的人啊，难道还不明白与世俗为友就是与上帝为敌吗？所以，凡是与世俗为友的，都是上帝的敌人。 5 圣经上说：“上帝所赐、住在我们心里的圣灵深愿我们完全属于祂。”你们以为这是空谈吗？ 6 但上帝赐给我们更大的恩典，所以圣经上说：“上帝阻挡骄傲的人，恩待谦卑的人。”
7 因此，你们要服从上帝，抵挡魔鬼，魔鬼必逃离你们。 8 你们亲近上帝，上帝就必亲近你们。有罪的人啊，洗净你们的手吧！三心二意的人啊，洁净你们的心吧！ 9 你们要悲伤、忧愁、痛哭，转欢笑为悲哀，变欢乐为愁苦。 10 你们要在主面前谦卑，祂必擢升你们。
不要论断
11 弟兄姊妹，不要彼此批评。批评、论断弟兄姊妹就等于是批评、论断律法。如果你论断律法，你就不是遵行律法的人，而是以审判者自居。 12 设立律法和审判人的只有一位，就是能拯救人也能毁灭人的上帝。你是谁，竟然论断别人呢？
警戒自夸
13 你们有些人说：“今天或是明天，我们要往某某城去，在那里逗留一年半载，做生意赚钱。” 14 其实你们根本不知道明天会发生什么事。你们的生命是什么呢？你们只不过像一阵雾气，出现片刻，就无影无踪了。 15 你们只当说：“如果主许可，我们就可以活着，可以做这事或做那事。” 16 现在，你们竟敢傲慢自夸，这实属邪恶。 17 所以人若知道善而不去行，就是犯罪。
James 4
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 4
Causes of Division.[a] 1 Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions[b] that make war within your members?(A) 2 You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You do not possess because you do not ask. 3 You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 Adulterers![c] Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God.(B) 5 Or do you suppose that the scripture speaks without meaning when it says, “The spirit that he has made to dwell in us tends toward jealousy”?[d] 6 But he bestows a greater grace; therefore, it says:(C)
“God resists the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.”[e]
7 So submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.(D) 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you of two minds.(E) 9 Begin to lament, to mourn, to weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.(F)
11 Do not speak evil of one another, brothers. Whoever speaks evil of a brother or judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law.[f] If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save or to destroy. Who then are you to judge your neighbor?(G)
Warning Against Presumption.[g] 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town, spend a year there doing business, and make a profit”— 14 you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow.[h] You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.(H) 15 Instead you should say, “If the Lord wills it,[i] we shall live to do this or that.” 16 But now you are boasting in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 (I)So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, it is a sin.[j]
Footnotes
- 4:1–12 The concern here is with the origin of conflicts in the Christian community. These are occasioned by love of the world, which means enmity with God (Jas 4:4). Further, the conflicts are bound up with failure to pray properly (cf. Mt 7:7–11; Jn 14:13; 15:7; 16:23), that is, not asking God at all or using God’s kindness only for one’s pleasure (Jas 4:2–3). In contrast, the proper dispositions are submission to God, repentance, humility, and resistance to evil (Jas 4:7–10).
- 4:1–3 Passions: the Greek word here (literally, “pleasures”) does not indicate that pleasure is evil. Rather, as the text points out (Jas 4:2–3), it is the manner in which one deals with needs and desires that determines good or bad. The motivation for any action can be wrong, especially if one does not pray properly but seeks only selfish enjoyment (Jas 4:3).
- 4:4 Adulterers: a common biblical image for the covenant between God and his people is the marriage bond. In this image, breaking the covenant with God is likened to the unfaithfulness of adultery.
- 4:5 The meaning of this saying is difficult because the author of James cites, probably from memory, a passage that is not in any extant manuscript of the Bible. Other translations of the text with a completely different meaning are possible: “The Spirit that he (God) made to dwell in us yearns (for us) jealously,” or, “He (God) yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us.” If this last translation is correct, the author perhaps had in mind an apocryphal religious text that echoes the idea that God is zealous for his creatures; cf. Ex 20:5; Dt 4:24; Zec 8:2.
- 4:6 The point of this whole argument is that God wants the happiness of all, but that selfishness and pride can make that impossible. We must work with him in humility (Jas 4:10).
- 4:11 Slander of a fellow Christian does not break just one commandment but makes mockery of the authority of law in general and therefore of God.
- 4:13–17 The uncertainty of life (Jas 4:14), its complete dependence on God, and the necessity of submitting to God’s will (Jas 4:15) all help one know and do what is right (Jas 4:17). To disregard this is to live in pride and arrogance (Jas 4:16); failure to do what is right is a sin (Jas 4:17).
- 4:14 Some important Greek manuscripts here have, “You who have no idea what tomorrow will bring. Why, what is your life?”
- 4:15 If the Lord wills it: often in piety referred to as the “conditio Jacobaea,” the condition James says we should employ to qualify all our plans.
- 4:17 It is a sin: those who live arrogantly, forgetting the contingency of life and our dependence on God (Jas 4:13–16), are guilty of sin.
Chinese Contemporary Bible Copyright © 1979, 2005, 2007, 2011 by Biblica® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.