James 2

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

2 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;

3 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”;

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

5 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?

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

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

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

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

10 For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.

11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,”also said, “Do not commit murder.”Now if you do not commit adultery, but murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

12 So speak, and so do, as men who are to be judged by a law of freedom.

13 For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him?

15 And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food,

16 and one of you tells them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled”; and yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it?

17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.

18 Yes, a man will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith.

19 You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder.

20 But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead?

21 Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?

22 You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected;

23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness”;and he was called the friend of God.

24 You see then that by works, a man is justified, and not only by faith.

25 In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?

26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JAS/2-c56dc7c2a43b5b94baf5ae2e5333eb23.mp3?version_id=206—

James 3

1 Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment.

2 For in many things we all stumble. If anyone doesn’t stumble in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.

3 Indeed, we put bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, and we guide their whole body.

4 Behold,the ships also, though they are so big and are driven by fierce winds, are yet guided by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires.

5 So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest!

6 And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna.

7 For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and sea creature, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind;

8 but nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image of God.

10 Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

11 Does a spring send out from the same opening fresh and bitter water?

12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water.

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct that his deeds are done in gentleness of wisdom.

14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and don’t lie against the truth.

15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic.

16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition are, there is confusion and every evil deed.

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JAS/3-e3e89635404dec8c62e421cc03173454.mp3?version_id=206—

James 4

1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?

2 You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.

3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.

4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?

6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

7 Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9 Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks 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 Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.”

14 Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

15 For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”

16 But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.

17 To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JAS/4-ca0f5a98965cf516131404a22c5b686d.mp3?version_id=206—

James 5

1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you.

2 Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.

3 Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days.

4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies.

5 You have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn’t resist you.

7 Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain.

8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

9 Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door.

10 Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of perseverance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

11 Behold, we call them blessed who endured. You have heard of the perseverance of Job, and have seen the Lord in the outcome, and how the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

12 But above all things, my brothers, don’t swear— not by heaven, or by the earth, or by any other oath; but let your “yes” be “yes”, and your “no”, “no”; so that you don’t fall into hypocrisy.

13 Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises.

14 Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,

15 and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

16 Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.

17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months.

18 He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

19 Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back,

20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JAS/5-3b451b2b16259614c1a734eb5a7baf17.mp3?version_id=206—

Hebrews 1

1 God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,

2 has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.

3 His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purified us of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

4 having become so much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they have.

5 For to which of the angels did he say at any time,

“You are my Son.

Today I have become your father?”

and again,

“I will be to him a Father,

and he will be to me a Son?”

6 When he again brings in the firstborn into the world he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him.”

7 Of the angels he says,

“Who makes his angels winds,

and his servants a flame of fire.”

8 But of the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your Kingdom.

9 You have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity;

therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.”

10 And,

“You, Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth.

The heavens are the works of your hands.

11 They will perish, but you continue.

They all will grow old like a garment does.

12 You will roll them up like a mantle,

and they will be changed;

but you are the same.

Your years will not fail.”

13 But which of the angels has he told at any time,

“Sit at my right hand,

until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet?”

14 Aren’t they all serving spirits, sent out to do service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/HEB/1-fa4014277d7f63e353affaaf93d5ddc3.mp3?version_id=206—

Hebrews 2

1 Therefore we ought to pay greater attention to the things that were heard, lest perhaps we drift away.

2 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense;

3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation—which at the first having been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard;

4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders, by various works of power, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will?

5 For he didn’t subject the world to come, of which we speak, to angels.

6 But one has somewhere testified, saying,

“What is man, that you think of him?

Or the son of man, that you care for him?

7 You made him a little lower than the angels.

You crowned him with glory and honor.

8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”

For in that he subjected all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we don’t see all things subjected to him, yet.

9 But we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for everyone.

10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many children to glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

11 For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers,

12 saying,

“I will declare your name to my brothers.

Among of the congregation I will sing your praise.”

13 Again, “I will put my trust in him.”Again, “Behold, here I am with the children whom God has given me.”

14 Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

15 and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

16 For most certainly, he doesn’t give help to angels, but he gives help to the offspringof Abraham.

17 Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.

18 For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/HEB/2-07e4c596e9ac11f69fa74c14ac45c49c.mp3?version_id=206—

Hebrews 3

1 Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus;

2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, as also was Moses in all his house.

3 For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, because he who built the house has more honor than the house.

4 For every house is built by someone; but he who built all things is God.

5 Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken,

6 but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house; whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end.

7 Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today if you will hear his voice,

8 don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,

like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness,

9 where your fathers tested me by proving me,

and saw my deeds for forty years.

10 Therefore I was displeased with that generation,

and said, ‘They always err in their heart,

but they didn’t know my ways;’

11 as I swore in my wrath,

‘They will not enter into my rest.’”

12 Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;

13 but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today”; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end:

15 while it is said,

“Today if you will hear his voice,

don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.”

16 For who, when they heard, rebelled? No, didn’t all those who came out of Egypt by Moses?

17 With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

18 To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

19 We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/HEB/3-d69091888907ec3e60bd3cb4e3a60b1d.mp3?version_id=206—

Hebrews 4

1 Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest.

2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith by those who heard.

3 For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest”;although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

4 For he has said this somewhere about the seventh day, “God rested on the seventh day from all his works”;

5 and in this place again, “They will not enter into my rest.”

6 Seeing therefore it remains that some should enter therein, and they to whom the good news was before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience,

7 he again defines a certain day, today, saying through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said),

“Today if you will hear his voice,

don’t harden your hearts.”

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day.

9 There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

10 For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.

11 Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

12 For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

13 There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

14 Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold tightly to our confession.

15 For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.

16 Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/HEB/4-645777b804000c2c49ce6128ec4015ca.mp3?version_id=206—

Hebrews 5

1 For every high priest, being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

2 The high priest can deal gently with those who are ignorant and going astray, because he himself is also surrounded with weakness.

3 Because of this, he must offer sacrifices for sins for the people, as well as for himself.

4 Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he is called by God, just like Aaron was.

5 So also Christ didn’t glorify himself to be made a high priest, but it was he who said to him,

“You are my Son.

Today I have become your father.”

6 As he says also in another place,

“You are a priest forever,

after the order of Melchizedek.”

7 He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear,

8 though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered.

9 Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation,

10 named by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

11 About him we have many words to say, and hard to interpret, seeing you have become dull of hearing.

12 For although by this time you should be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the revelations of God. You have come to need milk, and not solid food.

13 For everyone who lives on milk is not experienced in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby.

14 But solid food is for those who are full grown, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/HEB/5-a271225462416e28483fd8bad1aaacc2.mp3?version_id=206—

Hebrews 6

1 Therefore leaving the teaching of the first principles of Christ, let us press on to perfection—not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith toward God,

2 of the teaching of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

3 This will we do, if God permits.

4 For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,

5 and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come,

6 and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify the Son of God for themselves again, and put him to open shame.

7 For the land which has drunk the rain that comes often on it, and produces a crop suitable for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receives blessing from God;

8 but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

9 But, beloved, we are persuaded of better things for you, and things that accompany salvation, even though we speak like this.

10 For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the saints, and still do serve them.

11 We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end,

12 that you won’t be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherited the promises.

13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself,

14 saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”

15 Thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

16 For men indeed swear by a greater one, and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation.

17 In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath;

18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us.

19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil;

20 where as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/HEB/6-e865d3faaedac71e7c9ff9fcdf74b549.mp3?version_id=206—