James 4:13-5:6

New Testament for Everyone

¹³ Now look here, you people who say, “Today, or tomorrow, we will go to such-and-such a town and spend a year there, and trade, and make some money.” ¹⁴ You have no idea what the next day will bring. What is your life? You are a mist which appears for a little while and then disappears again. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live, and we shall do this, or that.” ¹⁶ But, as it is, you boast in your pride. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ So then, if anyone knows the right thing to do, but doesn’t do it, it becomes sin for them.

Warnings to the rich

5 Now look here, you rich! Weep and wail for the horrible things that are going to happen to you! ² Your riches have rotted, and your clothes have become moth-eaten, ³ your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will bear witness against you and will eat up your flesh like fire. You have stored up riches in the last days! ⁴ Look: you cheated the workers who mowed your fields by keeping back their wages, and those wages are crying out! The cries of the farm workers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. ⁵ You have lived off the fat of the land, in the lap of luxury. You have fattened your own hearts on a day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned the Righteous One and killed him, and he doesn’t resist you.