New International Version NIV
New International Reader's Version NIRV
1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?
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Why do you fight and argue among yourselves? Isn't it because of your sinful longings? They fight inside you.
2 You 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.
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You want something, but you can't get it. You kill and want what others have. But you can't have what you want. You argue and fight. You don't have what you want, because you don't ask God.
3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
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When you do ask for something, you don't receive it. Why? Because you ask for the wrong reason. You want to spend your money on your sinful pleasures.
4 You adulterous people, 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.
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You are not faithful to God. Don't you know that to be a friend of the world is to hate God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us ?
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Don't you know what Scripture says? The spirit that God caused to live in us wants us to belong only to God. Don't you think Scripture has a reason for saying that?
6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
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God continues to give us more grace. That's why Scripture says, "God opposes those who are proud. But he gives grace to those who are not." (Proverbs 3:34)
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
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So obey God. Stand up to the devil. He will run away from you.
8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
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Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners. Make your hearts pure, you who can't make up your minds.
9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.
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Be full of sorrow. Cry and sob. Change your laughter to crying. Change your joy to sadness.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
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Bow down to the Lord. He will lift you up.
11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister 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.
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My brothers and sisters, don't speak against one another. Anyone who speaks against another believer speaks against the law. And anyone who judges another believer judges the law. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it. Instead, you are acting as if you were its judge.
12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
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There is only one Lawgiver and Judge. He is the One who is able to save life or destroy it. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
13 Now 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.”
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Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city. We will spend a year there. We will buy and sell and make money."
14 Why, 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.
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You don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? It is a mist that appears for a little while. Then it disappears.
15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
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Instead, you should say, "If it pleases the Lord, we will live and do this or that."
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.
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As it is, you are proud. You brag about it. That kind of bragging is evil.
17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
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So when you know the good things you should do and don't do them, you sin.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.
Holy Bible, New International Reader's Version® Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.