The Bible (Old and New Testaments)

and the scripture was fulfilled which saith, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God.

Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.

And in like manner was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

Be not many [of you] teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment.

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

Now if we put the horses’ bridles into their mouths that they may obey us, we turn about their whole body also.

Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, are yet turned about by a very small rudder, whither the impulse of the steersman willeth.

So the tongue also is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how much wood is kindled by how small a fire!

And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell.

For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind:

but the tongue can no man tame; [it is] a restless evil, [it is] full of deadly poison.

Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God:

out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet [water] and bitter?

can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither [can] salt water yield sweet.

Who is wise and understanding among you? let him show by his good life his works in meekness of wisdom.

But if ye have bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, glory not and lie not against the truth.

This wisdom is not [a wisdom] that cometh down from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

For where jealousy and faction are, there is confusion and every vile deed.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy.

And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for them that make peace.

Whence [come] wars and whence [come] fightings among you? [come they] not hence, [even] of your pleasures that war in your members?

Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not.

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend [it] in your pleasures.

Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God.

Or think ye that the scripture speaketh in vain? Doth the spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envying?

But he giveth more grace. Wherefore [the scripture] saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.

Be subject therefore unto God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye doubleminded.

Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

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

Speak not one against another, brethren. He that speaketh against a brother, or judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

One [only] is the lawgiver and judge, [even] he who is able to save and to destroy: but who art thou that judgest thy neighbor?

Come now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain:

whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that.

But now ye glory in your vauntings: all such glorying is evil.

To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Come now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you.

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

Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days.

Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.

Ye have condemned, ye have killed the righteous [one]; he doth not resist you.

Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receive the early and latter rain.

Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Murmur not, brethren, one against another, that ye be not judged: behold, the judge standeth before the doors.

Take, brethren, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spake in the name of the Lord.

Behold, we call them blessed that endured: ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful.

But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by the heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath: but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; that ye fall not under judgment.

Is any among you suffering? let him pray. Is any cheerful? let him sing praise.

Is 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:

and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him.

Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working.

Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months.

And he prayed again; and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

My brethren, if any among you err from the truth, and one convert him;

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

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

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

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

that the proof of your faith, [being] more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ:

whom not having seen ye love; on whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

receiving the end of your faith, [even] the salvation of [your] souls.

Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that [should come] unto you:

searching what [time] or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow them.

To whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto you, did they minister these things, which now have been announced unto you through them that preached the gospel unto you by the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven; which things angels desire to look into.

Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in [the time of] your ignorance:

but like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living;

because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.

And if ye call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to each man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear:

knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers;

but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, [even the blood] of Christ:

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

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

Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently:

having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth.

For, All flesh is as grass, And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower falleth:

But the word of the Lord abideth for ever. And this is the word of good tidings which was preached unto you.

Putting away therefore all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,

as newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation;

if ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious:

unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious,

ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Because it is contained in scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: And he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame.

For you therefore that believe is the preciousness: but for such as disbelieve, The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner;

and, A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence; for they stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.

But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for [God’s] own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

having your behavior seemly among the Gentiles; that, wherein they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether to the king, as supreme;

or unto governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evil-doers and for praise to them that do well.

For so is the will of God, that by well-doing ye should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God.