Daily Bible Reading
Day 167
Today's reading: James 4-5; 1 Peter 1-2
Look for the promises in God’s word. As you read and find them, write them in your journal along with the scripture reference.
James 4
Passions and Pride
1. Where do the conflicts and where do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, from your passions that battle inside you?
2. You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask;
3. you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions.
4. Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.
5. Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, “The spirit that God caused to live within us has an envious yearning”?
6. But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.”
7. So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded.
9. Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into despair.
10. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.
11. Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. He who speaks against a fellow believer or judges a fellow believer speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but its judge.
12. But there is only one who is lawgiver and judge – the one who is able to save and destroy. On the other hand, who are you to judge your neighbor?
13. Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”
14. You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes.
15. You ought to say instead, “If the Lord is willing, then 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 whoever knows what is good to do and does not do it is guilty of sin.
James 5
Warning to the Rich
1. Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are coming on you.
2. Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten.
3. Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you. It will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have hoarded treasure!
4. Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
5. You have lived indulgently and luxuriously on the earth. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
6. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person, although he does not resist you.
Patience in Suffering
7. So be patient, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s return. Think of how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the ground and is patient for it until it receives the early and late rains.
8. You also be patient and strengthen your hearts, for the Lord’s return is near.
9. Do not grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be judged. See, the judge stands before the gates!
10. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name.
11. Think of how we regard as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and you have seen the Lord’s purpose, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
12. And above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath. But let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall into judgment.
Prayer for the Sick
13. Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praises.
14. Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up – and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
16. So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness.
17. Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months!
18. Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land sprouted with a harvest.
19. My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back,
20. he should know that the one who turns a sinner back from his wandering path will save that person’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 1
Salutation
1. From Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those temporarily residing abroad (in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the province of Asia, and Bithynia) who are chosen
2. according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by being set apart by the Spirit for obedience and for sprinkling with Jesus Christ’s blood. May grace and peace be yours in full measure!
New Birth to Joy and Holiness
3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4. that is, into an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. It is reserved in heaven for you,
5. who by God’s power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6. This brings you great joy, although you may have to suffer for a short time in various trials.
7. Such trials show the proven character of your faith, which is much more valuable than gold – gold that is tested by fire, even though it is passing away – and will bring praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
8. You have not seen him, but you love him. You do not see him now but you believe in him, and so you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,
9. because you are attaining the goal of your faith – the salvation of your souls.
10. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who predicted the grace that would come to you searched and investigated carefully.
11. They probed into what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified beforehand about the sufferings appointed for Christ and his subsequent glory.
12. They were shown that they were serving not themselves but you, in regard to the things now announced to you through those who proclaimed the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven – things angels long to catch a glimpse of.
13. Therefore, get your minds ready for action by being fully sober, and set your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
14. Like obedient children, do not comply with the evil urges you used to follow in your ignorance,
15. but, like the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in all of your conduct,
16. for it is written, “You shall be holy, because I am holy.”
17. And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, live out the time of your temporary residence here in reverence.
18. You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed – not by perishable things like silver or gold,
19. but by precious blood like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, namely Christ.
20. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was manifested in these last times for your sake.
21. Through him you now trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
22. You have purified your souls by obeying the truth in order to show sincere mutual love. So love one another earnestly from a pure heart.
23. You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.
24. For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of the grass; the grass withers and the flower falls off,
25. but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word that was proclaimed to you.
1 Peter 2
1. So get rid of all evil and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
2. And yearn like newborn infants for pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up to salvation,
3. if you have experienced the Lord’s kindness.
A Living Stone, a Chosen People
4. So as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but chosen and priceless in God’s sight,
5. you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6. For it says in scripture, “Look, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and priceless cornerstone, and whoever believes in him will never be put to shame.”
7. So you who believe see his value, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,
8. and a stumbling-stone and a rock to trip over. They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10. You once were not a people, but now you are God’s people. You were shown no mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11. Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to keep away from fleshly desires that do battle against the soul,
12. and maintain good conduct among the non-Christians, so that though they now malign you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God when he appears.
Submission to Authorities
13. Be subject to every human institution for the Lord’s sake, whether to a king as supreme
14. or to governors as those he commissions to punish wrongdoers and praise those who do good.
15. For God wants you to silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good.
16. Live as free people, not using your freedom as a pretext for evil, but as God’s slaves.
17. Honor all people, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the king.
18. Slaves, be subject to your masters with all reverence, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are perverse.
19. For this finds God’s favor, if because of conscience toward God someone endures hardships in suffering unjustly.
20. For what credit is it if you sin and are mistreated and endure it? But if you do good and suffer and so endure, this finds favor with God.
21. For to this you were called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in his steps.
22. He committed no sin nor was deceit found in his mouth.
23. When he was maligned, he did not answer back; when he suffered, he threatened no retaliation, but committed himself to God who judges justly.
24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we may cease from sinning and live for righteousness. By his wounds you were healed.
25. For you were going astray like sheep but now you have turned back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.