James
Summary
James issues a sharp warning to the rich who have accumulated wealth through injustice and the oppression of labourers, declaring that their "riches are corrupted" and will witness against them. He then encourages the suffering believers to "be patient until the coming of the Lord," using the example of the farmer waiting for the "precious fruit of the earth." James points to the prophets and Job as patterns of suffering and patience. He concludes with practical instructions on prayer and healing within the church, emphasizing that the "effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much," and stresses the value of restoring someone who has wandered from the truth.
Go to now, you rich people, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
Your gold and silver is rusted; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days.
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries: and the cries of those who have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
You have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; you have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
You have condemned and killed the just; and he does not resist you.
Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receives the early and latter rain.
Be you also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draws near.
Grudge not one against another, brothers, lest you be condemned: behold, the judge stands before the door.
Take, my brothers, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
Behold, we count them happy who endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
But above all things, my brothers, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your "yes" be yes; and your "no," no; lest you fall into condemnation.
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any cheerful? let him sing psalms.
Is any sick among you? 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 the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much.
Elijah was a person subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly 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.
Brothers, if any of you do err from the truth, and one converts him;
Let him know, that he who converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.