Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

Humility and faith

4 Where do wars come from? Why do people among you fight? It all comes from within, doesn’t it—from your desires for pleasure which make war in your members. ² You want something and you haven’t got it, so you murder someone. You long to possess something, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war. The reason you don’t have it is because you don’t ask for it! ³ And when you do ask, you don’t get it, because you ask wrongly, intending to spend it on your pleasures. ⁴ Adulterers! Don’t you know that to be friends with the world means being enemies with God? So anyone who wants to be friends with the world is setting themselves up as God’s enemy. ⁵ Or do you suppose that when the Bible says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit he has made to dwell in us,” it doesn’t mean what it says?

⁶ But God gives more grace; so it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” ⁷ Submit to God, then; resist the devil and he will run away from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Make your hands clean, you sinners; and make your hearts pure, you double-minded lot. ⁹ Make yourselves wretched; mourn and weep. Let your laughter turn to mourning, and your joy to sorrow. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Living by trust in God

¹¹ Do not speak evil against one another, my dear family. Anyone who speaks evil against another family member, or passes judgment against them, 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, one judge who can rescue or destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

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.

Patience and trust

⁷ So be patient, my brothers and sisters, for the appearing of the Lord. You know how the farmer waits for the valuable crop to come up from the ground. He is patient over it, waiting for it to receive the early rain and then the late rain. ⁸ In the same way, you must be patient, and make your hearts strong, because the appearing of the Lord is near at hand. ⁹ Don’t grumble against one another, my brothers and sisters, so that you may not be judged. Look—the judge is standing at the gates! ¹⁰ Consider the prophets, my brothers and sisters, who spoke in the name of the Lord. Take them as an example of longsuffering and patience. ¹¹ When people endure, we call them “blessed by God.” Well, you have heard of the endurance of Job; and you saw the Lord’s ultimate purpose. The Lord is deeply compassionate and kindly.

¹² Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear. Don’t swear by heaven; don’t swear by earth; don’t use any other oaths. Let your “Yes” be “Yes” and your “No” be “No.” That way, you will not fall under judgment.

Praying in faith

¹³ Are any among you suffering? Let them pray. Are any cheerful? Let them sing psalms. ¹⁴ Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church, and they should pray over the sick person, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ Faithful prayer will rescue the sick person, and the Lord will raise them up. If they have committed any sin, it will be forgiven them. ¹⁶ So confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

When a righteous person prays, that prayer carries great power. ¹⁷ Elijah was a man with passions like ours, and he prayed and prayed that it might not rain—and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. ¹⁸ Then he prayed again, the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

¹⁹ My dear family, if someone in your company has wandered from the truth, and someone turns them back, ²⁰ know this: the one who turns back a sinner from wandering off into error will rescue that person’s life from death, and cover a multitude of sins.