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 favour 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 neighbour?
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.
Miƙa kanku ga Allah
1Me yake jawo faɗace-faɗace da gardandami a tsakaninku? Ashe, ba sha’awace-sha’awacenku da suke yaƙi a zukatanku ba ne? 2Kukan nemi abu ku rasa, sai ku yi kisa da ƙyashi. In kuka rasa abin da kuke nema sai ku shiga yin gardama da faɗa. Kukan rasa ne, domin ba ku roƙi Allah ba. 3Sa’ad da kuka roƙa, ba kwa samu, don kun roƙa da mugun nufi, don ku kashe abin da kuka samu a kan sha’awace-sha’awacenku.
4Ku mazinata, ba ku san cewa abokantaka da duniya gāba ce da Allah ba? Duk wanda ya zaɓa yă zama abokin duniya ya zama abokin gāban Allah ke nan. 5Ko kuna tsammani a banza ne Nassi ya ce ruhun da ya sa yă zauna a cikinmu yana kishi sosai? 6Amma yakan ba mu alheri a yalwace. Shi ya sa Nassi ya ce,
“Allah yana gāba da masu girman kai
amma yakan ba da alheri ga masu tawali’u.”4.6 K Mag 3.34
7Saboda haka, ku miƙa kanku ga Allah. Ku yi tsayayya da Iblis, zai kuwa guje ku. 8Ku matso kusa da Allah shi kuwa zai matso kusa da ku. Ku wanke hannuwanku, ku masu zunubi, ku kuma tsarkake zukatanku, ku masu zuciya biyu. 9Ku yi baƙin ciki, ku yi makoki ku kuma yi kuka. Ku mai da dariyarku ta zama makoki, farin cikinku kuma yă zama ɓacin zuciya. 10Ku ƙasƙantar da kanku a gaban Ubangiji, zai kuwa ɗaukaka ku.
11’Yan’uwa, kada ku ɓata wa juna suna. Duk wanda ya zargi ɗan’uwansa ko ya ɗora masa laifi, yana gāba da doka ne yana kuma yin mata shari’a ke nan. In kuwa ka ɗora wa shari’a laifi, kai ba mai binta ba ne, mai ɗora mata laifi ne. 12Akwai Mai ba da doka da kuma Alƙali guda ɗaya tak, shi ne yake da ikon ceto da kuma hallakarwa. Amma kai, wane ne da za ka hukunta maƙwabcinka?
Yin fahariya game da gobe
13Yanzu fa sai ku saurara, ku da kuke cewa, “Yau ko gobe za mu je wannan ko wancan birni, mu yi shekara a can, mu yi kasuwanci, mu ci riba.” 14Alhali kuwa ba ku ma san abin da zai faru gobe ba. Wane iri ne ranku? Ku kamar hazo ne da yake bayyana na ɗan lokaci sa’an nan yă ɓace. 15A maimakon haka, ya kamata ku ce, “In Ubangiji ya yarda, muna kuma a raye, za mu yi wannan ko wancan.” 16Ga shi, kuna fariya da taƙama. Duk irin wannan taƙama mugun abu ne. 17Saboda haka, duk wanda ya san abu mai kyan da ya kamata yă yi, bai kuwa yi ba, ya yi zunubi ke nan.
