Love God, Love thy neighbor

JAMES
CHAPTER 1
1 From James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations.Greetings!

2 Dear brothers, is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy.
3 For when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow.
4 So let it grow, and don't try to squirm out of your problems. For when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you will be ready for anything, strong in character, full and complete.
5 If you want to know what God wants you to do, ask Him, and He will gladly tell you, for He is always ready to give a bountifu1 supply of wisdom to all who ask Him, He will not resent it.
6 But when you ask Him, be sure that you really expect Him to tell you, for a doubtful mind will be as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind;
7,8 And every decision you then make will be uncertain, as you turn first this way, and then that. If you don't ask with faith, don't 'expect the Lord to give you any solid answer.

9 A Christian who doesn't amount to much in this world should be glad, for he is great in the Lord's sight.

10,11 But a rich man should be glad that his riches mean nothing to the Lord, for he will soon be gone like a flower that has lost its beauty and fades away, withered-killed by the scorching summer sun. So it is with rich men. They will soon die and leave behind all their busy activities.

12 Happy is the man who doesn't give in and do wrong when he is tempted, for afterwards he will get as his reward the crown oflife that God has promised those who love Him.
13 And remember, when someone wants to do wrong it is never God who is tempting him, for God never wants to do wrong and never tempts anyone else to do it.
14 Temptation is the pull of man's own evil thoughts and wishes.
15 These evil thoughts lead to evil actions and afterwards to the death penalty from God.
16 So don't be misled, dear brothers.
17 But whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God, the Creator of all light, and He shines forever without change or shadow.
18 And it was a happy day for Him when He gave us our new lives, through the truth of His Word, and we
. became, as it were the first children in His new family.

19 Dear brothers, don't ever forget that it is best to listen much, speak little, and not become angry;
20 For anger doesn't make us good, as God demands that we must be.
21 So get rid of all that is wrong in your life, both inside and outside, and humbly be glad for the wonderful message we have received, for it is able to save our souls as it takes hold of our hearts.
22 And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. So don't fool yourselves.
23 For if a person just listens and doesn't obey, he is like a man looking at his face in a mirror;
24 As soon as he walks away, he can't see himself anymore or remember what he looks like.
25 But if anyone keeps looking steadily into God's law for free men, he will not only remember it but he will do what it says, and God will greatly bless him in everything he does.

26 Anyone who says he is a Christian but doesn't control his sharp tongue is just fooling himself, and his religion isn't worth much.
27 The Christian who is pure an.d without fault, from God the Father's point of view, is the one who takes care of orphans and widows, and whose soul remains true to the Lord-not soiled and dirtied by its contact with the world.


CHAPTER 2
1 Dear brothers, how can you claim that you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, if you show favoritism to rich people and look -down on poor people?
2 If a man comes into your church dressed in expensive clothes and with valuable gold rings on his fingers, and at the same moment another man comes in who is poor and dressed in threadbare clothes,
3 And you make a lot of fuss over the rich man and give him the best seat in the house and say to the poor man, "You can stand over there if you like, or else sit on the floor"-well,
4 This kind of action casts a question mark across your faith-are you really a Christian at al1?-and shows that you are guided by wrong motives.
5 Listen to me, dear brothers: God has chosen poor people to be rich in faith, and the kingdom of heaven is theirs, for that is the gift God has promised to all those who love Him.
6 And yet, of the two strangers, you have despised the poor man. Don't you realize that it is usually the rich . men who pick on you and drag you into court?
7 And all too often they are the ones who laugh at Jesus Christ. Whose noble name you bear.8 Yes indeed, it is good when you truly obey our Lord's command "You must I ove and help your neighborsjustasmuch as you love and take care of yourself."
9 But you are breaking this law of our Lord's when you favor the rich and fawn over them, it is sin.
10 And the person who keeps every law of God, but makes one little slip, is just as guilty as the person who has broken every law there is.
11 Forthe God who said you must not marry a woman who already has a husband, also said you must not murder, so even though you have not broken the marriage laws by committing adultery, but have murdered someone, you have entirely broken God's laws and stand utterly guilty before Him.
12 You will be judged on whether or not you are doing what Christ wants you to. So watch what you do and what you think;
13 For there will be no mercy to those who have shown no mercy. But if you have been merciful, then God's mercy toward you will win out over His judgment against you.

14 Dear brothers, what's the use of saying that you . have faith and are Christians, if you aren't proving it by helping others? Will that kind of faith save anyone?
15 If you have a friend who is in need of food and clothing, . 16 And you say to him, "Well good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat hearty," and then don't give him clothes or food, what good does that do?
17 So you see, it isn't enough just to have faith. You must also do good to prove that you have it. Faith that doesn't show itself by good works is no faith at all-it is dead and useless.
18 But someone may well argue, "You say the way to God is by faith alone, plus nothing; well, I say that good works are important too, for without good works you can't prove whether you have faith or not; but anyone can see that I have faith by the way I act."

19 Are there still some among you who hold that "only believing" is enough? Believing in one God? Well, remember that the devils believe this too--so strongly that they tremble in terror!
20 Dear foolish man! When will you ever learn that "believing" is useless without doing what God wants you to? Faith that does not result in good deeds is not real faith.
21 Don't you remember that even our father Abraham was declared good because of what he did, when he was willing to obey God, even if it meant offering his son Isaac to die on the altar?22 You see, he was trusting God so much that he was willing to do whatever God told him to; his faith was made complete by what he did by his actions, his good deeds.
23 And so it happened just as the Scriptures say, that Abraham trusted God, and the Lord declared him good in God's sight, and he was even called "the friend of God."
24 So you see, a man is saved by what he does, as well as by what he believes.

25 Rahab, the prostitute, is another example of this.
She was saved because of what she did when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road.

26 Just as the body is dead when there is no spirit in it, so faith is dead if it is not the kind that results in good deeds.



CHAPTER 3
1,2 Dear brothers, don't be too eager to tell others their faults, for we all make many mistakes, and when we teachers, who should know better, do wrong, our punishment will be greater than it would be for others.If anyone can control his tongue, it proves that he has perfect control over himself in' every other way.
3 We can make a large horse turn around and go wherever we want by means of a small bit in his mouth.
4 And a tiny rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot wants it to go, even though the winds ar~ strong.
5 So also the tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do. A great forest can be set on fire by one tiny spark.
6 And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is full of wickedness and poisons every part of the body. And the tongue is set on fire by hell itself, and can turn our whole lives into a blazing flame of destruction and disaster.

7 Men have trained, or can train, every kind of animal or bird that lives and every kind of reptile and fish,
8 But no human being can tame the tongue. It is always ready to pour out its deadly poison.
9 Sometimes it praises our heavenly Father, and sometimes it breaks out into curses against men who are made like God.
10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth.

Dear brothers.::. e y this is not right!
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