Submit Yourselves to God
1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4You adulterous people,4:4 An allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1. don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us4:5 Or that the spirit he caused to dwell in us envies intensely; or that the Spirit he caused to dwell in us longs jealously? 6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”4:6 Prov. 3:34
7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
11Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister4:11 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family. or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
Boasting About Tomorrow
13Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14Why, 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. 15Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
Kugonjera Mulungu
1Nʼchiyani chimene chimayambitsa ndewu ndi mapokoso pakati panu? Kodi sizichokera ku zilakolako zimene zimalimbana mʼkati mwanu? 2Mumalakalaka zinthu koma simuzipeza, choncho mumapha. Mumasirira zinthu koma simutha kuzipeza zimene mukufuna, choncho mumakangana ndi kumenyana. Mulibe zinthuzo chifukwa simupempha kwa Mulungu. 3Koma ngakhale mumapempha simulandira, chifukwa mumapempha ndi zolinga zoyipa. Mumapempha kuti muzigwiritse ntchito pa zokusangalatsani nokha.
4Inu anthu achigololo, kodi simukudziwa kuti kuchita ubwenzi ndi dziko lapansi ndi kudana ndi Mulungu? Choncho, aliyense wosankha kukhala bwenzi la dziko lapansi amasanduka mdani wa Mulungu. 5Kapena mukuganiza kuti Malemba amanena popanda chifukwa kuti Mulungu amafunitsitsa mwansanje mzimu umene Iye anayika kuti uzikhala mwa ife? 6Koma amatipatsa chisomo chochuluka. Nʼchifukwa chake Malemba amati,
“Mulungu amatsutsa odzikuza,
koma apereka chisomo kwa odzichepetsa.”
7Dziperekeni nokha kwa Mulungu. Mukaneni Mdierekezi ndipo adzakuthawani. 8Sendezani kufupi ndi Mulungu ndipo Iye adzasendeza kwa inu. Sambani mʼmanja mwanu, inu anthu ochimwa. Yeretsani mitima yanu, inu anthu okayikira. 9Chitani chisoni chifukwa cha zimene mwachita, lirani misozi. Kuseka kwanu kusanduke kulira, ndipo chimwemwe chanu chisanduke chisoni. 10Dzichepetseni pamaso pa Ambuye ndipo Iye adzakukwezani.
11Abale musamanenane. Aliyense wonenera zoyipa mʼbale wake kapena kumuweruza, akusinjirira ndi kuweruza Malamulo. Pamene muweruza malamulo, ndiye kuti simukusunga malamulowo, koma mukuwaweruza. 12Pali mmodzi yekha Wopereka Malamulo ndi Woweruza. Ndiye amene akhoza kupulumutsa ndi kuwononga. Kodi ndiwe yani kuti uziweruza mnzako?
Kunyadira za Mawa
13Tsono tamverani, inu amene mumati, “Lero kapena mawa tipita ku mzinda wakutiwakuti, tikatha chaka chimodzi tikuchita malonda ndi kupanga ndalama.” 14Chifukwa chiyani mukutero? Inu simukudziwa zimene ziti zichitike mawa. Kodi moyo wanu ndi wotani? Inu muli ngati nkhungu imene imangooneka kwa kanthawi kochepa ndipo kenaka ndikuzimirira. 15Koma inuyo muyenera kunena kuti, “Ambuye akalola, tikadzakhala ndi moyo, tidzachita zakutizakuti.” 16Koma mmene zililimu mumangodzitama ndi kudzikuza. Kudzitama konse kotereku ndi koyipa. 17Aliyense amene amadziwa zabwino zimene amayenera kuchita koma osazichita, ndiye kuti wachimwa.
