1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Aren't they caused by the selfish desires that fight to control you? 2You want what you don't have, so you commit murder. You're determined to have things, but you can't get what you want. You quarrel and fight. You don't have the things you want, because you don't pray for them. 3When you pray for things, you don't get them because you want them for the wrong reason-for your own pleasure. 4You unfaithful people! Don't you know that love for this [evil] world is hatred toward God? Whoever wants to be a friend of this world is an enemy of God. 5Do you think this passage means nothing? It says, "The Spirit that lives in us wants us to be his own." 6But God shows us even more kindness. Scripture says, "God opposes arrogant people, but he is kind to humble people."

7So place yourselves under God's authority. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you. 8Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Clean up your lives, you sinners, and clear your minds, you doubters. 9Be miserable, mourn, and cry. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into gloom. 10Humble yourselves in the Lord's presence. Then he will give you a high position.

11Brothers and sisters, stop slandering each other. Those who slander and judge other believers slander and judge God's teachings. If you judge God's teachings, you are no longer following them. Instead, you are judging them. 12There is only one teacher and judge. He is able to save or destroy you. So who are you to judge your neighbor?

13Pay attention to this! You're saying, "Today or tomorrow we will go into some city, stay there a year, conduct business, and make money." 14You don't know what will happen tomorrow. What is life? You are a mist that is seen for a moment and then disappears. 15Instead, you should say, "If the Lord wants us to, we will live and carry out our plans." 16However, you brag because you're arrogant. All such bragging is evil. 17Whoever knows what is right but doesn't do it is sinning.