Day 288 of 365

¹Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment.

²For in many things we all stumble. If anyone does not stumble in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.

³Now if we put bits into the horses' mouths so that they may obey us, we guide their whole body.

⁴Behold, the ships also, though they are so big and are driven by fierce winds, are yet guided by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires.

⁵So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest!

⁶And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by hell.

⁷For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and thing in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind.

⁸But nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

⁹With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image of God.

¹⁰Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

¹¹Does a spring send out from the same opening fresh and bitter water?

¹²Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Nor is salt water able to produce sweet.

¹³Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct that his deeds are done in gentleness of wisdom.

¹⁴But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not boast and do not lie against the truth.

¹⁵This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic.

¹⁶For where jealousy and selfish ambition are, there is confusion and every evil deed.

¹⁷But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy.

¹⁸Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

¹Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Do not they come from your pleasures that war in your members?

²You lust, and do not have. You kill, covet, and cannot obtain. You fight and make war. You do not have, because you do not ask.

³You ask, and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.

⁴You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

⁵Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit which He made to dwell in us yearns jealously"?

⁶But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

⁷Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

⁸Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁹Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.

¹⁰Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

¹¹Do not speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.

¹²Only one is the lawgiver and judge, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

¹³Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow let us go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit."

¹⁴Whereas you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away .

¹⁵For you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that."

¹⁶But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.

¹⁷To him therefore who knows to do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin.

¹Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you.

²Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.

³Your 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.

⁴Behold, 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 hosts.

⁵You have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.

⁶You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He does not resist you.

⁷Be 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.

⁸You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.

⁹Do not grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won't be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door.

¹⁰Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

¹¹Behold, 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.

¹²But above all things, my brothers, do not swear, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath; but let your "yes" be "yes," and your "no," "no;" so that you do not fall under judgment.

¹³Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises.

¹⁴Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,

¹⁵and 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.

¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.

¹⁷Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.

¹⁸He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.

¹⁹My brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back,

²⁰let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.

¹Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen ones who are living as foreigners in the Diaspora in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

²according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy became our father again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

⁴to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that does not fade away, reserved in Heaven for you,

⁵who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

⁶Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in various trials,

⁷that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ-

⁸whom not having seen you love; in whom, though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory-

⁹receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

¹⁰Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you,

¹¹searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow them.

¹²To them it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to you, they ministered these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the Good News to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from heaven; which things angels desire to look into.

¹³Therefore, prepare your minds for action, be sober and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ-

¹⁴as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance,

¹⁵but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior;

¹⁶because it is written, "You shall be holy; for I am holy."

¹⁷If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man's work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear:

¹⁸knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,

¹⁹but with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ;

²⁰who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of times for your sake,

²¹who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead, and gave Him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.

²²Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from a pure heart fervently:

²³having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding Word of God.

²⁴For, "All flesh is like grass, and all it's glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls;

²⁵but the word of the Lord endures forever." This is the word of Good News which was preached to you.