New Testament Plan

¹Let brotherly love continue.

²Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.

³Remember those in prison, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily.

⁴Marriage is to be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

⁵Keep your life free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you or abandon you.

⁶Therefore, we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

⁷Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith.

⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

⁹Don’t be led astray by various kinds of strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be established by grace and not by food regulations, since those who observe them have not benefited.

¹⁰We have an altar from which those who worship at the tabernacle do not have a right to eat.

¹¹For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the most holy place by the high priest as a sin offering are burned outside the camp.

¹²Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, so that he might sanctify the people by his own blood.

¹³Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing his disgrace.

¹⁴For we do not have an enduring city here; instead, we seek the one to come.

¹⁵Therefore, through him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.

¹⁶Don’t neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.

¹⁷Obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.

¹⁸Pray for us, for we are convinced that we have a clear conscience, wanting to conduct ourselves honorably in everything.

¹⁹And I urge you all the more to pray that I may be restored to you very soon.

²⁰Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus — the great Shepherd of the sheep  — through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

²¹equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

²²Brothers and sisters, I urge you to receive this message of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.

²³Be aware that our brother Timothy has been released. If he comes soon enough, he will be with me when I see you.

²⁴Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who are from Italy send you greetings.

²⁵Grace be with you all.

¹James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings.

²Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials,

³because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

⁴And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

⁵Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God — who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly — and it will be given to him.

⁶But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

⁷That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord,

⁸being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.

⁹Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation,

¹⁰but let the rich boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field.

¹¹For the sun rises and, together with the scorching wind, dries up the grass; its flower falls off, and its beautiful appearance perishes. In the same way, the rich person will wither away while pursuing his activities.

¹²Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

¹³No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone.

¹⁴But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.

¹⁵Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.

¹⁶Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.

¹⁷Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

¹⁸By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

¹⁹My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

²⁰for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.

²¹Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

²²But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

²³Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror.

²⁴For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.

²⁵But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works — this person will be blessed in what he does.

²⁶If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself.

²⁷Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

¹My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

²For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in,

³if you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,”

⁴haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?

⁶Yet you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court?

⁷Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?

⁸Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.

⁹If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

¹⁰For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.

¹¹For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.

¹²Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.

¹³For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?

¹⁵If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food

¹⁶and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?

¹⁷In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.

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

¹⁹You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe — and they shudder.

²⁰Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?

²¹Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar?

²²You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete,

²³and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend.

²⁴You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

²⁵In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route?

²⁶For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.