James 4 - First Nations Version

WARS, FIGHTS, AND ARGUMENTS

¹ Where do the wars, fights, and arguments among you come from? Do they not come from the selfish desires that wage war in your own bodies?

² You want what you do not have, so you kill for it. You want what belongs to others, but you cannot get it from them, so you fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask the Great Spirit.

³ When you ask for things, you do not receive them because you ask for the wrong reasons, wanting to satisfy your own selfish desires.

⁴ You are unfaithful people! You must know that if you become friends with the ways of this world, you make yourself an enemy of the Great Spirit.

HUMBLE YOURSELVES

⁵ Do you think our Sacred Teachings have no meaning when they tell us that Creator’s Spirit in us longs for us to be faithful and true to him?

⁶ But his gift of great kindness is more than enough, just as our Sacred Teachings also say, “The Great Spirit stands against the proud and arrogant, but he shows great kindness to the humble of heart.”

⁷ So humbly follow all of Creator’s ways. Make your stand against the evil trickster, and he will turn and run from you.

⁸ Draw near to the Great Spirit, and he will draw near to you. Wash your hands clean of your broken ways, and purify your hearts and minds from trying to walk two different roads.

⁹ Cry out in your misery. Be sad and weep. Turn your laughter into sadness, and your joy into tears.

¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Great Spirit, and he will lift you up to a place of honor.

DO NOT ACCUSE EACH OTHER

¹¹ My sacred family members, do not speak accusations against each other. If you do, you are putting yourselves above the law, deciding who is guilty or not. When you do this, you are acting against the law itself instead of doing what it says.

¹² There is only one true Lawgiver and Judge who has the power to decide who has done right or wrong. He is the one with the right to set people free or bring them to a bad end. So who are you to judge a fellow human being?

LOOK OUT FOR EVIL BOASTING

¹³ Listen to me, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to a trading post in some village. There we will stay for a year trading our goods and gaining more than we started with.”

¹⁴ You do not even know what tomorrow will bring. Your life is like the morning mist over a lake that is there for a short time and then gone.

¹⁵ Instead, here is what you should say, “If it is what Creator wants, then we will live and do these things.”

¹⁶ But as it stands, you are making prideful boasts. All such boasting is evil.

¹⁷ So then, the one who knows to do good but fails to do it is walking in broken ways.