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James 4
Contemporary English Version
James 4
Contemporary English Version
Friendship with the World
4 Why do you fight and argue with each other? Isn't it because you are full of selfish desires that fight to control your body? 2 You want something you don't have, and you will do anything to get it. You will even kill! But you still cannot get what you want, and you won't get it by fighting and arguing. You should pray for it. 3 Yet even when you do pray, your prayers are not answered, because you pray just for selfish reasons.
4 You people aren't faithful to God! Don't you know if you love the world, you are God's enemies? And if you decide to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 Do you doubt the Scriptures that say, “God truly cares about the Spirit he has put in us”?[a] 6 (A) In fact, God treats us with even greater kindness, just as the Scriptures say,
“God opposes everyone
who is proud,
but he blesses all who are humble
with undeserved grace.”
7 Surrender to God! Resist the devil, and he will run from you. 8 Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Clean up your lives, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you people who can't make up your mind. 9 Be sad and sorry and weep. Stop laughing and start crying. Be gloomy instead of glad. 10 Be humble in the Lord's presence, and he will honor you.
Saying Cruel Things about Others
11 My friends, don't say cruel things about others! If you do, or if you condemn others, you are condemning God's Law. And if you condemn the Law, you put yourself above the Law and refuse to obey either it 12 or God who gave it. God is our judge, and he can save or destroy us. What right do you have to condemn anyone?
Warning against Bragging
13 (B)(C) You should know better than to say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to the city. We will do business there for a year and make a lot of money!” 14 What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears. 15 You should say, “If the Lord lets us live, we will do these things.” 16 Yet you are stupid enough to brag, and it is wrong to be so proud. 17 If you don't do what you know is right, you have sinned.
Footnotes
- 4.5 God truly cares about the Spirit he has put in us: One possible meaning for the difficult Greek text; other translations are possible, such as, “the Spirit that God put in us truly cares.”
Santiago 4
La Biblia de las Américas
Santiago 4
La Biblia de las Américas
Guerras y conflictos
4 ¿De dónde vienen las guerras y los conflictos[a] entre vosotros(A)? ¿No vienen de vuestras pasiones[b] que combaten en vuestros miembros(B)? 2 Codiciáis y no tenéis, por eso cometéis homicidio(C). Sois envidiosos y no podéis obtener, por eso combatís[c] y hacéis guerra. No tenéis, porque no pedís. 3 Pedís y no recibís(D), porque pedís con malos propósitos[d], para gastarlo en vuestros placeres. 4 ¡Oh almas adúlteras[e](E)! ¿No sabéis que la amistad del mundo(F) es enemistad hacia Dios(G)? Por tanto, el que quiere ser amigo del mundo, se constituye enemigo de Dios(H). 5 ¿O pensáis que la Escritura dice en vano(I): El celosamente anhela[f] el Espíritu(J) que ha hecho morar en nosotros[g]? 6 Pero Él da mayor gracia(K). Por eso dice: Dios resiste a los soberbios pero da gracia a los humildes(L). 7 Por tanto, someteos a Dios(M). Resistid, pues, al diablo y huirá de vosotros(N). 8 Acercaos a Dios, y Él se acercará a vosotros(O). Limpiad vuestras manos(P), pecadores; y vosotros de doble ánimo[h](Q), purificad vuestros corazones(R). 9 Afligíos, lamentad y llorad(S); que vuestra risa se torne en llanto[i] y vuestro gozo en tristeza. 10 Humillaos en la presencia del Señor(T) y Él os exaltará.
11 Hermanos(U), no habléis mal los unos de los otros(V). El que habla mal de un hermano o juzga a su hermano(W), habla mal de la ley(X) y juzga a la ley; pero si tú juzgas a la ley, no eres cumplidor de la ley(Y), sino juez de ella. 12 Solo hay un dador de la ley y juez(Z), que es poderoso para salvar y para destruir(AA); pero tú, ¿quién eres que juzgas a tu prójimo(AB)?
La incertidumbre de la vida
13 Oíd[j] ahora(AC), los que decís: Hoy o mañana iremos a tal o cual ciudad(AD) y pasaremos allá un año, haremos negocio y tendremos ganancia. 14 Sin embargo, no sabéis[k] cómo será vuestra vida mañana[l]. Solo sois un vapor que aparece por un poco de tiempo y luego se desvanece(AE). 15 Más bien, debierais decir[m]: Si el Señor quiere(AF), viviremos y haremos esto o aquello. 16 Pero ahora os jactáis en vuestra arrogancia[n]; toda jactancia semejante es mala(AG). 17 A aquel, pues, que sabe hacer lo bueno[o] y no lo hace(AH), le es pecado.
Footnotes
- Santiago 4:1 Lit., ¿De dónde guerras, y de dónde conflictos
- Santiago 4:1 Lit., ¿No de aquí, de vuestros placeres
- Santiago 4:2 O, tenéis pleitos
- Santiago 4:3 Lit., malvadamente
- Santiago 4:4 O, infieles
- Santiago 4:5 Lit., anhela hasta los celos
- Santiago 4:5 O, El Espíritu que Él ha hecho morar en nosotros nos anhela celosamente
- Santiago 4:8 O, corazones divididos
- Santiago 4:9 O, gemido, o, lamento
- Santiago 4:13 Lit., Vamos
- Santiago 4:14 Lit., Los que no sabéis
- Santiago 4:14 Algunos mss. dicen: el mañana, pues, ¿qué es vuestra vida?
- Santiago 4:15 Lit., en lugar de decir
- Santiago 4:16 O, vuestras pretensiones
- Santiago 4:17 O, lo correcto
James 4
New International Version
James 4
New International Version
Submit Yourselves to God
4 What causes fights and quarrels(A) among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle(B) within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill.(C) You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive,(D) because you ask with wrong motives,(E) that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4 You adulterous(F) people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world(G) means enmity against God?(H) Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.(I) 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us[b]?(J) 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil,(L) and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you.(M) Wash your hands,(N) you sinners, and purify your hearts,(O) you double-minded.(P) 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.(Q) 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.(R)
11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another.(S) Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister[d] or judges them(T) speaks against the law(U) and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it,(V) but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge,(W) the one who is able to save and destroy.(X) But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?(Y)
Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Now listen,(Z) you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”(AA) 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.(AB) 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will,(AC) we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.(AD) 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.(AE)
Footnotes
- James 4:4 An allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1.
- James 4:5 Or that the spirit he caused to dwell in us envies intensely; or that the Spirit he caused to dwell in us longs jealously
- James 4:6 Prov. 3:34
- James 4:11 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family.
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