Holman Christian Standard Bible (357 page)

Our Will and His Will

13
 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 
14
 You don't even know what tomorrow will bring — what your life will be! For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes. 

15
 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
16
 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 
17
 So it is a sin for the person who knows to do what is good and doesn't do it. 

James

Warning to the Rich

5
Come now, you rich people! Weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you.
2
 Your wealth is ruined and your clothes are moth-eaten. 
3
 Your silver and gold are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You stored up treasure in the last days! 
4
 Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who reaped your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of
•Hosts
.
5
 You have lived luxuriously on the land and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. 
6
 You have condemned — you have murdered — the righteous man; he does not resist you. 

Waiting for the Lord

7
 Therefore, brothers, be patient until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 
8
 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord's coming is near. 

9
 Brothers, do not complain about one another, so that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door! 

10
 Brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord's name as an example of suffering and patience.
11
 See, we count as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job's endurance and have seen the outcome from the Lord. The Lord is very compassionate and merciful. 

Truthful Speech

12
 Now above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. Your “yes” must be “yes,” and your “no” must be “no,” so that you won't fall under judgment. 

Effective Prayer

13
 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises. 
14
 Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they should pray over him after anointing him with olive oil in the name of the Lord. 
15
 The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will restore him to health; if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 
16
 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The urgent request of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect. 
17
 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours; yet he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land. 
18
 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit. 

19
 My brothers, if any among you strays from the truth, and someone turns him back, 
20
 let him know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his
•life
from death and cover a multitude of sins. 

1 Peter

1 Peter

Greeting

1
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ:

To the temporary residents dispersed in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
•Asia
, and Bithynia, chosen 
2
 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and set apart by the Spirit for obedience and for sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

A Living Hope

3
 Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 
4
 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.
5
 You are being protected by God's power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 
6
 You rejoice in this, though now for a short time you have had to struggle in various trials 
7
 so that the genuineness of your faith  — more valuable than gold, which perishes though refined by fire  — may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 
8
 You love Him, though you have not seen Him. And though not seeing Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy,
9
 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 

10
 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that would come to you searched and carefully investigated.
11
 They inquired into what time or what circumstances the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when He testified in advance to the messianic sufferings and the glories that would follow. 
12
 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you. These things have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Angels desire to look into these things.

A Call to Holy Living

13
 Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be serious and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
14
 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance.
15
 But as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct;
16
 for it is written,
Be holy, because I am holy.

17
 And if you address as Father the One who judges impartially based on each one's work, you are to conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your temporary residence.
18
 For you know that you were
•redeemed
from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 
19
 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.
20
 He was chosen before the foundation of the world but was revealed at the end of the times for you
21
 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

22
 By obedience to the truth, having purified yourselves for sincere love of the brothers, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 
23
 since you have been born again  — not of perishable seed but of imperishable — through the living and enduring word of God. 
24
 For

And this is the word that was preached as the gospel to you.

1 Peter

The Living Stone and a Holy People

2
So rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. 
2
 Like newborn infants, desire the pure spiritual milk, so that you may grow by it for your salvation, 
3
 since
you have tasted
 
that the Lord is good.
4
 Coming to Him, a living stone — rejected by men but chosen and valuable to God —
5
 you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6
 For it is contained in Scripture:

7
 So honor will come to you who believe, but for the unbelieving,

8
 and

They stumble because they disobey the message; they were destined for this.

A Call to Good Works

11
 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you.
12
 Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that in a case where they speak against you as those who do what is evil, they will, by observing your good works, glorify God on the day of visitation.

13
 Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the Emperor as the supreme authority 
14
 or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good.
15
 For it is God's will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good.
16
 As God's
•slaves
, live as free people, but don't use your freedom as a way to conceal evil. 
17
 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the Emperor. 

Submission of Slaves to Masters

18
 Household slaves, submit with all fear to your masters, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.
19
 For it brings favor if, mindful of God's will, someone endures grief from suffering unjustly.
20
 For what credit is there if you sin and are punished, and you endure it? But when you do what is good and suffer, if you endure it, this brings favor with God.

1 Peter

Wives and Husbands

3
In the same way, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, even if some disobey the Christian message, they may be won over without a message by the way their wives live 
2
 when they observe your pure, reverent lives. 
3
 Your beauty should not consist of outward things like elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold ornaments or fine clothes. 
4
 Instead, it should consist of what is inside the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very valuable in God's eyes.
5
 For in the past, the holy women who put their hope in God also beautified themselves in this way, submitting to their own husbands,
6
 just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You have become her children when you do what is good and are not frightened by anything alarming. 

7
 Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives with an understanding of their weaker nature yet showing them honor as co-heirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

Do No Evil

8
 Now finally, all of you should be like-minded and sympathetic, should love believers, and be compassionate and humble, 
9
 not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you can inherit a blessing.