Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks
4 1 He reckoneth up the mischiefs that proceed of the works of the flesh. 7 He exhorteth to humility, 8 and to purge the heart 3 from pride, 10 backbiting, 14 and the forgetfulness of our own infirmity.
1 From [a]whence are wars and contentions among you? are they not hence, even of your pleasures, that fight in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye envy, and desire immoderately, and cannot obtain: ye fight, and war, and get nothing, [b]because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye might lay the same on your pleasures.
4 [c]Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the amity of the world is the enmity of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, maketh himself the enemy of God.
5 [d]Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us, lusteth after envy?
6 But the Scripture offereth more grace, and therefore saith, (A)God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
7 (B)[e]Submit yourselves to God: resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purge your hearts, ye double minded.
9 [f]Suffer afflictions, and sorrow ye, and weep: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into [g]heaviness.
10 (C)Cast down yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
11 [h]Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, or he that condemneth his brother, speaketh evil of the Law, and condemneth the Law: and if thou condemnest the Law, thou art not an observer of the Law, but a judge.
12 There is one Lawgiver, which is able to save, and to destroy, (D)Who art thou that judgest another man?
13 [i]Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain,
14 (And yet ye cannot tell what shall be tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and afterward vanisheth away.)
15 For that ye ought to say, (E)If the Lord will, and if we live, we will do this or that.
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17 [j]Therefore to him that knoweth how to do well, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
5 1 He threateneth the rich with God’s severe judgment, for their pride, 7 that the poor hearing the miserable end of the rich, 8 may patiently bear afflictions, 11 as Job did, 14 even in their distresses.
1 Go [k]to now, ye rich men: weep, and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupt, and your garments are moth eaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh, as it were fire. Ye have heaped up treasure for the last days.
4 Behold, the hire of the laborers, which have reaped your fields (which is of you kept back by fraud) crieth, and the cries of them which have reaped, are entered into the [l]ears of the Lord of hosts.
5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and in wantonness. Ye have [m]nourished your hearts, as in a [n]day of slaughter.
6 Ye have condemned, and have killed the just, and he hath not resisted you.
7 [o]Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. [p]Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the former, and the latter rain.
8 Be ye also patient therefore, and settle your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth near.
9 [q][r]Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: [s]behold, the judge standeth before the door.
10 [t]Take, my brethren, the Prophets for an example of suffering adversity, and of long patience, which have spoken in the name of the Lord.
11 Behold, we count them blessed which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have known what [u]end the Lord made. For the Lord is very pitiful and merciful.
12 [v]But before all things, my brethren, (F)swear not, neither by heaven, nor by earth, nor by any other oath: but let [w]your yea, be yea, and your nay, nay, lest ye fall into condemnation.
13 [x]Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing.
14 [y]Is any sick among you? Let him call for the Elders of the Church, and let them pray for him, and anoint him with (G)[z]oil in the [aa]Name of the Lord.
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he have committed [ab]sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 [ac]Acknowledge your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed: [ad]for the prayer of a righteous man availeth much, if it be fervent.
17 (H)Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again: and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
19 [ae]Brethren, (I)If any of you hath erred from the truth, and some man hath [af]converted him,
20 Let him know that he which hath converted the sinner from going astray out of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.