James 4:1-10

Common English Bible

Conflict with people and God

4 What is the source of conflict among you? What is the source of your disputes? Don’t they come from your cravings that are at war in your own lives? ²You long for something you don’t have, so you commit murder. You are jealous for something you can’t get, so you struggle and fight. You don’t have because you don’t ask. ³You ask and don’t have because you ask with evil intentions, to waste it on your own cravings.

⁴You unfaithful people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world's friend becomes God's enemy. ⁵Or do you suppose that scripture is meaningless? Doesn’t God long for our faithfulness in^[a] the life he has given to us?^[b] ⁶But he gives us more grace. This is why it says, God stands against the proud, but favors the humble.^[c] ⁷Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you. ⁸Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹Cry out in sorrow, mourn, and weep! Let your laughter become mourning and your joy become sadness. ¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

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Footnotes

James 4:5 Or jealously longs for
James 4:5 Or Doesn’t the spirit that God placed in us have jealous desires?
James 4:6 Prov 3:34

Psalm 51:11-18

Common English Bible

¹¹Please don’t throw me out of your presence;
    please don’t take your holy spirit away from me.
¹²Return the joy of your salvation to me
    and sustain me with a willing spirit.
¹³Then I will teach wrongdoers your ways,
    and sinners will come back to you.

¹⁴Deliver me from violence, God, God of my salvation,
    so that my tongue can sing of your righteousness.
¹⁵Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth will proclaim your praise.
¹⁶You don’t want sacrifices.
    If I gave an entirely burned offering,
    you wouldn’t be pleased.
¹⁷A broken spirit is my sacrifice, God.^[a]
    You won’t despise a heart, God, that is broken and crushed.
¹⁸Do good things for Zion by your favor.
    Rebuild Jerusalem’s walls.

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Footnotes

Psalm 51:17 Correction

Mark 9:30-37

Common English Bible

Jesus predicts his death

³⁰From there Jesus and his followers went through Galilee, but he didn’t want anyone to know it. ³¹This was because he was teaching his disciples, “The Human One^[a] will be delivered into human hands. They will kill him. Three days after he is killed he will rise up.” ³²But they didn’t understand this kind of talk, and they were afraid to ask him.

³³They entered Capernaum. When they had come into a house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about during the journey?” ³⁴They didn’t respond, since on the way they had been debating with each other about who was the greatest. ³⁵He sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be least of all and the servant of all.” ³⁶Jesus reached for a little child, placed him among the Twelve, and embraced him. Then he said, ³⁷“Whoever welcomes one of these children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me isn’t actually welcoming me but rather the one who sent me.”

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