Bible Reading Plan – Day 286

₁₃Are there people among you who are wise and understanding? They are to prove it by their good lives, by their good deeds performed with humility and wisdom. ₁₄But if in your heart you are jealous, bitter, and selfish, don't sin against the truth by boasting of your wisdom. ₁₅Such wisdom does not come down from heaven; it belongs to the world, it is unspiritual and demonic. ₁₆Where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is also disorder and every kind of evil. ₁₇But the wisdom from above is pure first of all; it is also peaceful, gentle, and friendly; it is full of compassion and produces a harvest of good deeds; it is free from prejudice and hypocrisy. ₁₈And goodness is the harvest that is produced from the seeds the peacemakers plant in peace.

₁Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting within you. ₂You want things, but you cannot have them, so you are ready to kill; you strongly desire things, but you cannot get them, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it. ₃And when you ask, you do not receive it, because your motives are bad; you ask for things to use for your own pleasures. ₄Unfaithful people! Don't you know that to be the world's friend means to be God's enemy? People who want to be the world's friends make themselves God's enemies. ₅Don't think that there is no truth in the scripture that says, “The spirit that God placed in us is filled with fierce desires.” ₆But the grace that God gives is even stronger. As the scripture says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

₇So then, submit to God. Resist the Devil, and he will run away from you. ₈Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites! ₉Be sorrowful, cry, and weep; change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom! ₁₀Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

₁₁Do not criticize one another, my brothers and sisters. If you criticize fellow-Christians or judge them, you criticize the Law and judge it. If you judge the Law, then you are no longer one who obeys the Law, but one who judges it. ₁₂God is the only lawgiver and judge. He alone can save and destroy. Who do you think you are, to judge someone else?

₁₃Now listen to me, you that say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to a certain city, where we will stay a year and go into business and make a lot of money.” ₁₄You don't even know what your life tomorrow will be! You are like a puff of smoke, which appears for a moment and then disappears. ₁₅What you should say is this: “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.” ₁₆But now you are proud, and you boast; all such boasting is wrong.

₁₇So then, those who do not do the good they know they should do are guilty of sin.

₁And now, you rich people, listen to me! Weep and wail over the miseries that are coming upon you! ₂Your riches have rotted away, and your clothes have been eaten by moths. ₃Your gold and silver are covered with rust, and this rust will be a witness against you and will eat up your flesh like fire. You have piled up riches in these last days. ₄You have not paid any wages to those who work in your fields. Listen to their complaints! The cries of those who gather in your crops have reached the ears of God, the Lord Almighty. ₅Your life here on earth has been full of luxury and pleasure. You have made yourselves fat for the day of slaughter. ₆You have condemned and murdered innocent people, and they do not resist you.

₇Be patient, then, my brothers and sisters, until the Lord comes. See how patient a farmer is as he waits for his land to produce precious crops. He waits patiently for the autumn and spring rains. ₈You also must be patient. Keep your hopes high, for the day of the Lord's coming is near.

₉Do not complain against one another, my brothers and sisters, so that God will not judge you. The Judge is near, ready to appear. ₁₀My brothers and sisters, remember the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Take them as examples of patient endurance under suffering. ₁₁We call them happy because they endured. You have heard of Job's patience, and you know how the Lord provided for him in the end. For the Lord is full of mercy and compassion.

₁₂Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not use an oath when you make a promise. Do not swear by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Say only “Yes” when you mean yes, and “No” when you mean no, and then you will not come under God's judgement.

₁₃Are any of you in trouble? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. ₁₄Are any of you ill? You should send for the church elders, who will pray for them and rub olive oil on them in the name of the Lord. ₁₅This prayer made in faith will heal the sick; the Lord will restore them to health, and the sins they have committed will be forgiven. ₁₆So then, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be healed. The prayer of a good person has a powerful effect. ₁₇Elijah was the same kind of person as we are. He prayed earnestly that there would be no rain, and no rain fell on the land for three and a half years. ₁₈Once again he prayed, and the sky poured out its rain and the earth produced its crops.

₁₉My brothers and sisters, if any of you wander away from the truth and another one brings them back again, ₂₀remember this: whoever turns a sinner back from his or her wrong way will save that sinner's soul from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.