benwisdom

But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.

However, if you fulfill the royal law, according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well.

Don’t they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?

But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?

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?

haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

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;”

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;

My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality.

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.

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.

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.

for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

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;

But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.

Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God.

So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;

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.

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.

Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers.

Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.

But each one is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.

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.

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.

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.

and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away.

But let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position;

He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

For let that man not think that he will receive anything from the Lord.

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.

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.

Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations,

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings.

Grace be with you all. Amen.

Greet all of your leaders and all the saints. The Italians greet you.

Know that our brother Timothy has been freed, with whom, if he comes shortly, I will see you.

But I exhort you, brothers, endure the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words.

make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus,

I strongly urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you sooner.

Pray for us, for we are persuaded that we have a good conscience, desiring to live honorably in all things.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch on behalf of your souls, as those who will give account, that they may do this with joy, and not with groaning, for that would be unprofitable for you.

But don’t forget to be doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Through him, then, let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.

For we don’t have here an enduring city, but we seek that which is to come.

Let us therefore go out to him outside of the camp, bearing his reproach.

Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate.

For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside of the camp.

We have an altar from which those who serve the holy tabernacle have no right to eat.

Don’t be carried away by various and strange teachings, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not by food, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Remember your leaders, men who spoke to you the word of God, and considering the results of their conduct, imitate their faith.

So that with good courage we say, “The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.”

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

Remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them; and those who are ill-treated, since you are also in the body.

Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for in doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it.

Let brotherly love continue.

for our God is a consuming fire.

Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let us have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe,

This phrase, “Yet once more,” signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain.

whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”

See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the Earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven,

to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.

to the general assembly and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,

But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels,

and so fearful was the appearance, that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”

for they could not stand that which was commanded, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned;”

the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them,

For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm,

For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears.

lest there be any sexually immoral person, or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal.

looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it;

Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord,

and make straight paths for your feet, so that which is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

Therefore, lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees,

All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised thereby.

For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.

Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?

But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not children.

It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline?

For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.”

and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him;

You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin;

For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls.

looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Therefore let us also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

These all, having had testimony given to them through their faith, didn’t receive the promise,

(of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.

They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated

Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment.

Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.

quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, grew mighty in war, and caused foreign armies to flee.

who, through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

What more shall I say? For the time would fail me if I told of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets;

By faith, Rahab the prostitute, didn’t perish with those who were disobedient, having received the spies in peace.