Listen to James, Chapter 2
{2:1} My brothers, don't hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality. {2:2} For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in; {2:3} and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing, and say, "Sit here in a good place;" and you tell the poor man, "Stand there," or "Sit by my footstool;" {2:4} haven't you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? {2:5} Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn't God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him? {2:6} But you have dishonored the poor man. Don't the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts? {2:7} Don't they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called? {2:8} However, if you fulfill the royal law, according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well. {2:9} But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors. {2:10} For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. {2:11} For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not commit murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. {2:12} So speak, and so do, as men who are to be judged by a law of freedom. {2:13} For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
{2:14} What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? {2:15} And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, {2:16} and one of you tells them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled;" and yet you didn't give them the things the body needs, what good is it? {2:17} Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself. {2:18} Yes, a man will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith.
{2:19} You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder. {2:20} But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead? {2:21} Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? {2:22} You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected; {2:23} and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness;" and he was called the friend of God. {2:24} You see then that by works, a man is justified, and not only by faith. {2:25} In the same way, wasn't Rahab the prostitute also justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way? {2:26} For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
NEW Reading - James Chapter 1
Listen to James, Chapter 1
{1:1} James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings. {1:2} Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, {1:3} knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. {1:4} Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. {1:5} But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him. {1:6} But let him ask in faith, without any
doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. {1:7} For let that man not think that he will receive anything from the Lord. {1:8} He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
{1:9} But let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position; {1:10} and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away. {1:11} For the sun arises with the scorching wind, and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in his pursuits.
{1:12} Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him. {1:13} Let no man say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God can't be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. {1:14} But each one is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. {1:15} Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. {1:16} Don't be deceived, my beloved brothers. {1:17}
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow. {1:18} 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.
{1:19} So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; {1:20} for the anger of man doesn't produce the righteousness of God. {1:21} Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. {1:22} But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. {1:23} For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; {1:24} for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. {1:25} But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
{1:26} If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man's religion is worthless. {1:27} Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
{1:1} James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings. {1:2} Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, {1:3} knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. {1:4} Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. {1:5} But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him. {1:6} But let him ask in faith, without any
doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. {1:7} For let that man not think that he will receive anything from the Lord. {1:8} He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
{1:9} But let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position; {1:10} and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away. {1:11} For the sun arises with the scorching wind, and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in his pursuits.
{1:12} Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him. {1:13} Let no man say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God can't be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. {1:14} But each one is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. {1:15} Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. {1:16} Don't be deceived, my beloved brothers. {1:17}
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow. {1:18} 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.
{1:19} So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; {1:20} for the anger of man doesn't produce the righteousness of God. {1:21} Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. {1:22} But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. {1:23} For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; {1:24} for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. {1:25} But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
{1:26} If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man's religion is worthless. {1:27} Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
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