James 4:11-5:6

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Warning against Judging Another

¹¹ Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another 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.^{(A) 12} There is one lawgiver and judge^[a] who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?^(B)

Boasting about Tomorrow

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.”^{(C) 14} Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.^{(D) 15} Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.”^{(E) 16} As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it commits sin.^(F)

Warning to Rich Oppressors

5 Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. ² Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten.^{(G) 3} Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure^[b] during the last days. ⁴ Listen! 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.^{(H) 5} You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.^{(I) 6} You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.