November 21
Jas 5:1-20
Come now, you rich,
weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. Your riches are
corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. 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.
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. You have lived delicately on the earth, and
taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of
slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He
doesn’t resist you.
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. You also be patient. Establish
your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged.
Behold, the judge stands at the door. Take, brothers, for an example of
suffering and of patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
Behold, we call them blessed who endured. You have heard of the patience of
Job, and have seen the Lord in the outcome, and how the Lord is full of
compassion and mercy. 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.
Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing
praises. 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,
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. 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. 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. He prayed
again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him
back, 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.
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