THE BOOK OF JAMES
James Chapter 1
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the dispersion: Greeting.
2 Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials,
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For that person ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,
10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like the flower of the grass he will pass away.
11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So will the rich man fade away in his pursuits.
12 Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one.
14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19 You know this, my beloved brethren. But let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;
20 for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God.
21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23 For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
25 But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing.
26 If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is vain.
27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
James Chapter 2
1 My brethren, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
2 For if a man with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in,
3 and you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while you say to the poor man, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet.”
4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you, is it not they who drag you into court?
7 Is it not they who blaspheme that noble name which is invoked over you?
8 If you really fulfill the royal law, according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well.
9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” said also, “Do not kill.” If you do not commit adultery but kill, you have become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy; yet mercy triumphs over judgment.
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?
17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
18 But some one will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.
20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is barren?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar?
22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works,
23 and the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God.
24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.
James Chapter 3
1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness.
2 For we all make many mistakes, and if any one makes no mistakes in what he says he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.
3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses that they may obey us, we guide their whole bodies.
4 Look at the ships also; though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
5 So the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!
6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell.
7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind,
8 but the tongue can no man tame. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the likeness of God.
10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren, this ought not to be so.
11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening fresh and brackish water?
12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good life let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.
14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.
15 This wisdom is not a wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish.
16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without uncertainty or insincerity.
18 And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
James Chapter 4
1 What causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members?
2 You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
4 Unfaithful creatures! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5 Or do you suppose it is in vain that the scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit which he has made to dwell in us”?
6 But he gives more grace; therefore it says, “God opposes 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, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind.
9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brethren. He who speaks evil against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
12 There is one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you that you judge your neighbor?
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain.”
14 Yet you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that.”
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
James Chapter 5
1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days.
4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned, you have killed the righteous man; he does not resist you.
7 Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient over it until it receives the early and the late rain.
8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
9 Do not grumble, brethren, against one another, that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the doors.
10 As an example of suffering and patience, brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, that you may not fall under condemnation.
13 Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise.
14 Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
16 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.
17 Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
18 Then he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.
19 My brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth and some one brings him back,
20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
THE BOOK OF 1 PETER
1 Peter Chapter 1
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
2 chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
5 who by God’s power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials,
7 so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
8 Without having seen him, you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy.
9 As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls.
10 The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired about this salvation;
11 they inquired what person or time was indicated by the Spirit of Christ within them when predicting the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glory.
12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things which have now been announced to you by those who preached the good news to you through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
13 Therefore gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,
15 but as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct;
16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
17 And if you invoke as Father him who judges each one impartially according to his deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.
18 You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
20 He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake.
21 Through him you have confidence in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brethren, love one another earnestly from the heart.
23 You have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord abides for ever.” That word is the good news which was preached to you.
1 Peter Chapter 2
1 So put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander.
2 Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation;
3 for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
4 Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious;
5 and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6 For it stands in scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 To you therefore who believe, he is precious, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.”
8 and “A stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall”; for they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were no people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I beseech you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war against your soul.
12 Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles, so that in case they speak against you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme,
14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right.
15 For it is God’s will that by doing right you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
16 Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God.
17 Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
18 Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to the kind and gentle but also to the overbearing.
19 For one is approved if, mindful of God, he endures pain while suffering unjustly.
20 For what credit is it, if when you do wrong and are beaten for it, you take it patiently? But if when you do right and suffer for it you take it patiently, you have God’s approval.
21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
22 He committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips.
23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
25 By his wounds you have been healed.
26 For you were straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
1 Peter Chapter 3
1 Likewise, wives, be subject to your husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives,
2 when they see your reverent and chaste behavior.
3 Let not yours be the outward adorning with braiding of hair, decoration of gold, and wearing of robes,
4 but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.
5 So once the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves and were submissive to their husbands,
6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you have become her children if you do right and let nothing terrify you.
7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker sex, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, in order that your prayers may not be hindered.
8 Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
9 Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called, that you may obtain a blessing.
10 For “He that would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile;
11 let him turn away from evil and do right; let him seek peace and pursue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?
14 But even if you do suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,
15 but in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence;
16 and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
17 For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God’s will, than for doing wrong.
18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit;
19 in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison,
20 who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.
21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.