^1. WHAT is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? [1] 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 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 [3] with wrong motives, so that you may spend it [2] on your pleasures.

^4. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever 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: « [5] He [4] 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. [7] Yet you do not know [6] what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

^15. [8] 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 [9] arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

^17. Therefore, to one who knows the [10] right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.