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Things to Avoid

^1 (F1)What is the source of quarrels and ^(C1)conflicts among you? ^(F2)Is not the source your pleasures that wage ^(C2)war in your members?² You lust and do not have; so you ^(C1)commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.³ You ask and ^(C1)do not receive, because you ask ^(F1)with wrong motives, so that you may spend it ^(F2)on your pleasures.⁴ You ^(C1)adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with ^(C2)the world is ^(C3)hostility toward God? ^(C4)Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.⁵ Or do you think that the Scripture ^(C1)speaks to no purpose: "^(F1)He ^(F2)jealously desires ^(C2)the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"?⁶ But ^(C1)He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "^(C2)GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."^7 (C1)Submit therefore to God. ^(C2)Resist the devil and he will flee from you.^8 (C1)Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. ^(C2)Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and ^(C3)purify your hearts, you ^(C4)double-minded.^9 (C1)Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.^10 (C1)Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

^11 (C1)Do not speak against one another, ^(C2)brethren. He who speaks against a brother or ^(C3)judges his brother, speaks against ^(C4)the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not ^(C5)a doer of the law but a judge of it.¹² There is only one ^(C1)Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is ^(C2)able to save and to destroy; but ^(C3)who are you who judge your neighbor?

^13 (C1)Come now, you who say, "^(C2)Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit."^14 (F1)Yet you do not know ^(F2)what your life will be like tomorrow. ^(C1)You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.^15 (F1)Instead, you ought to say, "^(C1)If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."¹⁶ But as it is, you boast in your ^(F1)arrogance; ^(C1)all such boasting is evil.¹⁷ Therefore, ^(C1)to one who knows the ^(F1)right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.