Give yourselves to God
1Why do you fight and argue with each other? It is because you are selfish. The things that you want fight with each other inside of you. 2You want things but you do not get them, so then you kill people and are jealous of each other. You fight and argue with each other because you do not get the things that you want. You do not get the things that you want because you do not ask God. 3When you ask God for something, you do not get it because you ask for the wrong reasons. You ask for things that you can waste on your selfish ways of thinking.
4You are bad and sinful people. When someone is a friend of the people of this world, then he is an enemy of God. Any person who wants to be a friend of the people of this world is an enemy of God. 5In the Old_Testament it is written: ‘God has given us life. He wants us to live for Him alone.’ You know that this is true.
6But God helps us. He gives us even more grace. That is why He said in the Old_Testament:
‘When people think they can mock other people,
God will mock them.
When people know they can not help themselves,
God will help them and give them his grace.’
7You must listen to God. You must say ‘no’ to the devil, and then he will flee from you. 8You must come near to God, and then He will come near to you. You, who are sinners, must stop doing things that are wrong. You, who are hypocrites, must stop thinking bad things. 9You must feel sorry, and you must cry and mourn for the wrong things that you have done. You are laughing now, but you must be sad. You are happy now, but you must feel bad about who you really are. 10You must show God that you are small and humble, then God will make you important.
Do not say bad things of other people
11My friends, you must not say bad things about each other. When you say bad things about other believers or you judge them, then you are judging God's laws and you are not doing what the laws say, but you are making yourself a judge of the laws. 12There is only one Person who can make laws and judge. He is the One who can save people or cause them to die. But you may not judge other people.
You must not boast
13You say: ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to a town. We will stay there for a year and we will buy and sell things and get more money.’
But you must listen to what I am saying: 14You do not know what will happen tomorrow. Your life is like smoke. You can see it now, but then it disappears. 15No, you must say: ‘If God wants it to happen, then we will live and we will do these things.’
16But you say what you will do, and you boast about it and are proud. That is wrong. 17When someone knows what is the right thing to do, but he does not do it, then he also sins.
