Warning Against Worldliness

1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions¹ are at ^twar within you?² 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, ^ubecause you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask ^vwrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You ^wadulterous people!^{3 x}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 to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the ^yspirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ^z“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. ^aResist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 ^bDraw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you ^cdouble-minded. 9 ^dBe wretched and mourn and weep. ^eLet your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 ^fHumble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.⁴ The one who speaks against a brother or ^gjudges 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 only one ^hlawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. ⁱBut who are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting About Tomorrow

13 Come now, you who say, ^j“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet ^kyou do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a ^lmist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, ^m“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. ⁿAll such boasting is evil. 17 ^oSo whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Warning to the Rich

1 Come now, you ^prich, ^qweep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are ^rmoth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up ^streasure in the last days. 4 Behold, the ^twages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, 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 self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a ^uday of slaughter. 6 You have ^vcondemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

Patience in Suffering

7 Be patient, therefore, brothers,⁵ until the ^wcoming of the Lord. ^xSee how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the ^yearly and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, ^zfor the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, ^aso that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the ^bprophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we consider those ^cblessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of ^dthe steadfastness of Job, and you have seen ^ethe purpose of the Lord, ^fhow the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

12 But above all, my brothers, ^gdo not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, ^hbut let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

The Prayer of Faith

13 ⁱIs anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? ^jLet him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, ^kanointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. ^lAnd 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. ^mThe prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.⁶ 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and ⁿhe prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 ^oThen he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

19 My brothers, ^pif anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will ^qcover a multitude of sins.

Blessed Are the Forgiven

A ^sMaskil¹ of David.