Things to Avoid
11 Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. The one who speaks against a brother or sister, or judges his brother or sister, 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, [j]judging 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 [k]Yet you do not know [l]what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away. 15 [m]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 [n]arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 So for one who knows the [o]right thing to do and does not do it, for him it is sin.
Footnotes
- James 4:1 Lit From where wars and from where fightings
- James 4:1 Lit Are they not from here, from your
- James 4:1 Lit your parts
- James 4:3 Lit wrongly
- James 4:3 Lit in
- James 4:5 Or The spirit which He has made to dwell in us lusts with envy
- James 4:5 Lit desires to jealousy
- James 4:7 Or oppose
- James 4:8 I.e., chronic doubters
- James 4:12 Lit the one judging
- James 4:14 Lit Who do not
- James 4:14 Or what will happen tomorrow. What kind of life is yours?
- James 4:15 Lit Instead of your saying
- James 4:16 Or pretensions
- James 4:17 Or good