A COLLECTION OF EPISTLES

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1 Whence do you have enmity and strife? Is it not from here, from your lusts, which are at war in your members?

2 You will, and you do not have; you kill and envy – and you cannot attain; you dispute and enmity – and you do not have it, because you do not ask.

3 Ask, and you do not receive, because you do not ask for good, but to use for your lusts.

4 Adulterers and adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity against God? Thus, whoever wants to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The spirit that dwelleth in us loveth unto jealousy"?

6 But all the greater is the grace; wherefore it is said: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

7 Submit yourselves, therefore, to God; resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you; cleanse your hands, you sinners, correct your hearts, you double-minded.

9 Lament, weep, and weep; let your laughter be turned into weeping, and your joy into sorrow.

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

11 Do not curse one another, brethren: whoever curses his brother, or judges his brother, the law curses him, and the law judges him. but if you judge the law, you are not the doer of the law, but the judge.

12 There is one Lawgiver and Judge, who is able to save and to destroy; And who are you, who judge another?

13 Now listen to you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and dwell there one year, and trade and make a profit.'

14 вы, которые не знаете, что случится завтра: ибо что такое жизнь ваша? пар, являющийся на малое время, а потом исчезающий.

15 Вместо того, чтобы вам говорить: «если угодно будет Господу и живы будем, то сделаем то или другое», – 16 вы, по своей надменности, тщеславитесь: всякое такое тщеславие есть зло.

17 Итак, кто разумеет делать добро и не делает, тому грех.