James 4
1 Where are battles and fights among you coming from? Isn’t it from here: from your desire for pleasuresa waging war between your parts?b 2 Your desires are set on what you don’t have; you murder and ambitiously contend, and you can’t obtain it. You fight and battle. You don’t have it because of you not asking; 3 you ask but don’t receive it because you ask belligerentlyc so that you can waste it with your desire for pleasures.
4 You unfaithful people!d Haven’t you understood that friendshipe with the world system is enmityf with God? So, whoever decides to be a friend of the world systemg positions themselves as an enemy of God.h 5 Or, do you think that the scripture says emptily, “The Life-breath which took up residence among us misses you, resulting in jealousyi.”j 6 But he provides bigger generosity. That’s why it says, “God resistsk the arrogant,l but provides generosity to people of low status.”m 7 Therefore, cooperaten with God, but resisto the False Accuser and it will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Deviators,p cleanse your hands; you with double lives,q purify your motivations.r 9 Reverse course,s express grief, and weep. Let your laughter be turned aroundt toward mourning, and your joy toward sorrow. 10 Be lowered in the Lord’s presence, and he will lift you up.
11 Family, don’t criticize each other. Whoever criticizes a member of the Family or evaluates their Family member criticizes Torah and evaluates Torah. If you evaluate Torah, then you’re not someone who lives out Torah but its evaluatoru instead. 12 There is one Torah-giver and evaluator who is able to liberate and destroy. So, who are you to be an evaluator of your neighbor?
13 Now, come on, whichever of you says, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to some city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit,” 14 you who don’t considerv what your lives will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that’s visible for a short time and then invisible.w 15 It’s the opposite of you saying, “If the Lord wants, then we will live and do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast about your pretentiousness. All boasting of that kind is harmful. 17 Whoever has learned to behave kindlyx but doesn’t do it, deviationy is with them.
FOOTNOTES:
a Or ‘enjoyments’ or ‘joys.’ This can refer to the feeling of pleasure itself or to the experience that produces pleasure.
b Or ‘between your body parts.’
c Or ‘poorly’ or ‘aggressively’ or ‘greedily’ or ‘ungenerously’ or ‘unkindly’ or ‘meanly’ or ‘hostilely’ or ‘cruelly.’
d Traditionally, ‘adulterers.’ It means people who have been unfaithful in a committed marriage relationship, used figuratively here for people who have been unfaithful as members of the Assembly, the Body and Bride of Christ.
e Traditionally, ‘love.’ This word is philia, the kind of relational and emotional bond shared between family members and close friends, possibly called affection or attachment. It is not agape, ‘love,’ that used in other places for a posture and commitment to pursuing the benefit of those loved.
f Or ‘animosity’ or ‘hostility’
g Someone who directs philia (friendship, affection, attachment) toward the world system
h Someone who directs echthra (enmity, animosity, hostility) toward God
i This phrase is difficult to translate clearly. The Greek is pros phthonon epipothei. Pros is a preposition that in this instance could mean ‘for the purpose of,’ ‘with the result that,’ or ‘against’ (being in opposition to). Phthonon can mean ‘envy,’ ‘jealousy,’ ‘spite,’ ‘refusal/objection,’ or ‘resentment/offense.’ Epipothei could mean ‘to miss’ (something no longer present) or ‘to wish for’ (something not yet present). Putting them together seems unclear. It could be ‘the spirit wishes for [something] for the purpose of spite’ or ‘the spirit misses [something] resulting in resentment’ or ‘the spirit wishes for [something] against envy’ or ‘the spirit misses [something] resulting in jealousy.’ The omission of an object of wishing/missing makes it difficult to understand. The context of the audience being compared to unfaithful spouses suggests taking phthonon as jealousy and eppothei as ‘miss’ are the most likely intended meanings. Pros, then, would indicate result, and the implied object of jealousy would be ‘you,’ the unfaithful audience, or ‘them,’ those who decide to be a friend of the world system.
j This is not a direct quotation of the Hebrew Bible. It may be a summary of thoughts within scripture or it may be referencing a text not included in the books currently considered to be Holy Scripture.
k This word is taken from military settings, arranging troops to oppose an enemy force. It is antitasso, the antonym of hupotasso (which comes from arranging troops under the command of a common leader), which appears in the next verse as ‘cooperate’ and is the word traditionally translated as ‘submit’ in Ephesians 5:21.
l Or ‘over-bearing.’ Very literally from the words for ‘shine’ and ‘over.’ This is not just thinking highly of oneself but acting as if more important than others.
m Citation of Proverbs 3:34
n Traditionally, ‘submit.’ ‘Coordinate with’ or ‘assign yourselves to’ could be appropriate translations. According to The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Hupotasso is “A Greek military term meaning ‘to arrange [troop divisions] in a military fashion under the command of a leader’. In non-military use, it was ‘a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden’. In some contexts, like in the democracy of Athens, the one arranging the troops would take their stance among the ranks once everyone was in place, as a co-participant in the battle together.
o This word is taken from military settings, arranging troops to oppose an enemy force. It is antitasso, the antonym of hupotasso (which comes from arranging troops under the command of a common leader), which is translated as ‘cooperate’ and is the word traditionally translated as ‘submit’ in Ephesians 5:21.
p Traditionally, ‘sinners’
q Or ‘you who are double-minded’
r Literally, ‘hearts’
s The word talaporeo means to suffer hardship, and when in the context of a company
t The word ‘turn’ here is an image of physically being redirected, not the English ‘turn into’ that is about transformation.
u Traditionally, ‘judge.’ In this context, perhaps ‘critic.’
v Or ‘know about’ or ‘think about’ or ‘understand’ or ‘pay attention to.’ The Greek word is epistamai.
w Or ‘that appears for a short time and then disappears’
x Or ‘to do/produce kindness/generosity/beauty’
y Traditionally, ‘sin’