Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech: James | Page 3

often stumble and fall, all of us. If there is any one who never stumbles in speech, that man has reached maturity of character and is able to curb his whole nature. 003:003 Remember that we put the horses' bit into their mouths to make them obey us, and so we turn their whole bodies round. 003:004 So too with ships, great as they are, and often driven along by strong gales, yet they can be steered with a very small rudder in whichever direction the caprice of the man at the helm chooses. 003:005 In the same way the tongue is an insignificant part of the body, but it is immensely boastful. Remember how a mere spark may set a vast forest in flames. 003:006 And the tongue is a fire. That world of iniquity, the tongue, is placed within us spotting and soiling our whole nature, and setting the whole round of our lives on fire, being itself set on fire by Gehenna. 003:007 For brute nature under all its forms--beasts and birds, reptiles and fishes--can be subjected and kept in subjection by human nature. 003:008 But the tongue no man or woman is able to tame. It is an ever-busy mischief, and is full of deadly poison. 003:009 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in God's likeness. 003:010 Out of the same mouth there proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, this ought not to be. 003:011 In a fountain, are fresh water and bitter sent forth from the same opening? 003:012 Can a fig-tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine yield figs? No; and neither can salt water yield sweet. 003:013 Which of you is a wise and well-instructed man? Let him prove it by a right life with conduct guided by a wisely teachable spirit. 003:014 But if in your hearts you have bitter feelings of envy and rivalry, do not speak boastfully and falsely, in defiance of the truth. 003:015 That is not the wisdom which comes down from above: it belongs to earth, to the unspiritual nature, and to evil spirits. 003:016 For where envy and rivalry are, there also are unrest and every vile deed. 003:017 The wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceful, courteous, not self-willed, full of compassion and kind actions, free from favouritism and from all insincerity. 003:018 And peace, for those who strive for peace, is the seed of which the harvest is righteousness. 004:001 What causes wars and contentions among you? Is it not the cravings which are ever at war within you for various pleasures? 004:002 You covet things and yet cannot get them; you commit murder; you have passionate desires and yet cannot gain your end; you begin to fight and make war. You have not, because you do not pray; 004:003 or you pray and yet do not receive, because you pray wrongly, your object being to waste what you get on some pleasure or another. 004:004 You unfaithful women, do you not know that friendship with the world means enmity to God? Therefore whoever is bent on being friendly with the world makes himself an enemy to God. 004:005 Or do you suppose that it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "The Spirit which He has caused to dwell in our hearts yearns jealously over us"? 004:006 But He gives more abundant grace, as is implied in His saying, "God sets Himself against the haughty, but to the lowly He gives grace." 004:007 Submit therefore to God: resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. 004:008 Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you who are half-hearted towards God. 004:009 Afflict yourselves and mourn and weep aloud; let your laughter be turned into grief, and your gladness into shame. 004:010 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. 004:011 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. The man who speaks evil of a brother-man or judges his brother-man speaks evil of the Law and judges the Law. But if you judge the Law, you are no longer one who obeys the Law, but one who judges it. 004:012 The only real Lawgiver and Judge is He who is able to save or to destroy. Who are you to sit in judgement on your fellow man? 004:013 Come, you who say, "To-day or to-morrow we will go to this or that city, and spend a year there and carry on a successful business," 004:014 when, all the while, you do not even know what will happen to-morrow. For what is the nature of your life? Why, it