The Wisdom from Above (JAS 3:13-18)

[3:13] Are there any of you who are wise and understanding? You are to prove it by your good life, by your good deeds performed with humility and wisdom.

[3:14] But if in your heart you are jealous, bitter, and selfish, don't sin against the truth by boasting of your wisdom.

[3:15] Such wisdom does not come down from heaven; it belongs to the world, it is unspiritual and demonic.

[3:16] Where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is also disorder and every kind of evil.

[3:17] But the wisdom from above is pure first of all; it is also peaceful, gentle, and friendly; it is full of compassion and produces a harvest of good deeds; it is free from prejudice and hypocrisy.

[3:18] And goodness is the harvest that is produced from the seeds the peacemakers plant in peace.

Friendship with the World (JAS 4:1-10)

[4:1] Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting within you.

[4:2] You want things, but you cannot have them, so you are ready to kill; you strongly desire things, but you cannot get them, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it.

[4:3] And when you ask, you do not receive it, because your motives are bad; you ask for things to use for your own pleasures.

[4:4] Unfaithful people! Don't you know that to be the world's friend means to be God's enemy? If you want to be the world's friend, you make yourself God's enemy.

[4:5] Don't think that there is no truth in the scripture that says, “The spirit that God placed in us is filled with fierce desires.”

[4:6] But the grace that God gives is even stronger. As the scripture says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

[4:7] So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will run away from you.

[4:8] Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites!

[4:9] Be sorrowful, cry, and weep; change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom!

[4:10] Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Warning against Judging One Another (JAS 4:11-12)

[4:11] Do not criticize one another, my friends. If you criticize or judge another Christian, you criticize and judge the Law. If you judge the Law, then you are no longer one who obeys the Law, but one who judges it.

[4:12] God is the only lawgiver and judge. He alone can save and destroy. Who do you think you are, to judge someone else?

Warning against Boasting (JAS 4:13-17)

[4:13] Now listen to me, you that say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to a certain city, where we will stay a year and go into business and make a lot of money.”

[4:14] You don't even know what your life tomorrow will be! You are like a puff of smoke, which appears for a moment and then disappears.

[4:15] What you should say is this: “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.”

[4:16] But now you are proud, and you boast; all such boasting is wrong.

[4:17] So then, if we do not do the good we know we should do, we are guilty of sin.

Warning to the Rich (JAS 5:1-6)

[5:1] And now, you rich people, listen to me! Weep and wail over the miseries that are coming upon you!

[5:2] Your riches have rotted away, and your clothes have been eaten by moths.

[5:3] Your gold and silver are covered with rust, and this rust will be a witness against you and will eat up your flesh like fire. You have piled up riches in these last days.

[5:4] You have not paid any wages to those who work in your fields. Listen to their complaints! The cries of those who gather in your crops have reached the ears of God, the Lord Almighty.

[5:5] Your life here on earth has been full of luxury and pleasure. You have made yourselves fat for the day of slaughter.

[5:6] You have condemned and murdered innocent people, and they do not resist you.

Patience and Prayer (JAS 5:7-20)

[5:7] Be patient, then, my friends, until the Lord comes. See how patient farmers are as they wait for their land to produce precious crops. They wait patiently for the autumn and spring rains.

[5:8] You also must be patient. Keep your hopes high, for the day of the Lord's coming is near.

[5:9] Do not complain against one another, my friends, so that God will not judge you. The Judge is near, ready to appear.

[5:10] My friends, remember the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Take them as examples of patient endurance under suffering.

[5:11] We call them happy because they endured. You have heard of Job's patience, and you know how the Lord provided for him in the end. For the Lord is full of mercy and compassion.

[5:12] Above all, my friends, do not use an oath when you make a promise. Do not swear by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Say only “Yes” when you mean yes, and “No” when you mean no, and then you will not come under God's judgment.

[5:13] Are any among you in trouble? They should pray. Are any among you happy? They should sing praises.

[5:14] Are any among you sick? They should send for the church elders, who will pray for them and rub olive oil on them in the name of the Lord.

[5:15] This prayer made in faith will heal the sick; the Lord will restore them to health, and the sins they have committed will be forgiven.

[5:16] So then, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be healed. The prayer of a good person has a powerful effect.

[5:17] Elijah was the same kind of person as we are. He prayed earnestly that there would be no rain, and no rain fell on the land for three and a half years.

[5:18] Once again he prayed, and the sky poured out its rain and the earth produced its crops.

[5:19] My friends, if any of you wander away from the truth and another one brings you back again,

[5:20] remember this: whoever turns a sinner back from the wrong way will save that sinner's soul from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.

(1PE 1:1-2)

[1:1] From Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ— To God's chosen people who live as refugees scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

[1:2] You were chosen according to the purpose of God the Father and were made a holy people by his Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be purified by his blood. May grace and peace be yours in full measure.

A Living Hope (1PE 1:3-12)

[1:3] Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope,

[1:4] and so we look forward to possessing the rich blessings that God keeps for his people. He keeps them for you in heaven, where they cannot decay or spoil or fade away.

[1:5] They are for you, who through faith are kept safe by God's power for the salvation which is ready to be revealed at the end of time.

[1:6] Be glad about this, even though it may now be necessary for you to be sad for a while because of the many kinds of trials you suffer.

[1:7] Their purpose is to prove that your faith is genuine. Even gold, which can be destroyed, is tested by fire; and so your faith, which is much more precious than gold, must also be tested, so that it may endure. Then you will receive praise and glory and honor on the Day when Jesus Christ is revealed.

[1:8] You love him, although you have not seen him, and you believe in him, although you do not now see him. So you rejoice with a great and glorious joy which words cannot express,

[1:9] because you are receiving the salvation of your souls, which is the purpose of your faith in him.

[1:10] It was concerning this salvation that the prophets made careful search and investigation, and they prophesied about this gift which God would give you.

[1:11] They tried to find out when the time would be and how it would come. This was the time to which Christ's Spirit in them was pointing, in predicting the sufferings that Christ would have to endure and the glory that would follow.

[1:12] God revealed to these prophets that their work was not for their own benefit, but for yours, as they spoke about those things which you have now heard from the messengers who announced the Good News by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things which even the angels would like to understand.

A Call to Holy Living (1PE 1:13-25)

[1:13] So then, have your minds ready for action. Keep alert and set your hope completely on the blessing which will be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

[1:14] Be obedient to God, and do not allow your lives to be shaped by those desires you had when you were still ignorant.

[1:15] Instead, be holy in all that you do, just as God who called you is holy.

[1:16] The scripture says, “Be holy because I am holy.”

[1:17] You call him Father, when you pray to God, who judges all people by the same standard, according to what each one has done; so then, spend the rest of your lives here on earth in reverence for him.

[1:18] For you know what was paid to set you free from the worthless manner of life handed down by your ancestors. It was not something that can be destroyed, such as silver or gold;

[1:19] it was the costly sacrifice of Christ, who was like a lamb without defect or flaw.

[1:20] He had been chosen by God before the creation of the world and was revealed in these last days for your sake.

[1:21] Through him you believe in God, who raised him from death and gave him glory; and so your faith and hope are fixed on God.

[1:22] Now that by your obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves and have come to have a sincere love for other believers, love one another earnestly with all your heart.

[1:23] For through the living and eternal word of God you have been born again as the children of a parent who is immortal, not mortal.

[1:24] As the scripture says, “All human beings are like grass, and all their glory is like wild flowers. The grass withers, and the flowers fall,

[1:25] but the word of the Lord remains forever.” This word is the Good News that was proclaimed to you.

The Living Stone and the Holy Nation (1PE 2:1-10)

[2:1] Rid yourselves, then, of all evil; no more lying or hypocrisy or jealousy or insulting language.

[2:2] Be like newborn babies, always thirsty for the pure spiritual milk, so that by drinking it you may grow up and be saved.

[2:3] As the scripture says, “You have found out for yourselves how kind the Lord is.”

[2:4] Come to the Lord, the living stone rejected by people as worthless but chosen by God as valuable.

[2:5] Come as living stones, and let yourselves be used in building the spiritual temple, where you will serve as holy priests to offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.

[2:6] For the scripture says, “I chose a valuable stone, which I am placing as the cornerstone in Zion; and whoever believes in him will never be disappointed.”

[2:7] This stone is of great value for you that believe; but for those who do not believe: “The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all.”

[2:8] And another scripture says, “This is the stone that will make people stumble, the rock that will make them fall.” They stumbled because they did not believe in the word; such was God's will for them.

[2:9] But you are the chosen race, the King's priests, the holy nation, God's own people, chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his own marvelous light.

[2:10] At one time you were not God's people, but now you are his people; at one time you did not know God's mercy, but now you have received his mercy.