You have lived indulgently and luxuriously on the earth. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?

you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions.

Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are coming on you.

And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell.

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!

do you pay attention to the one who is finely dressed and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and to the poor person, “You stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor”?

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?

because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

So too the tongue is a small part of the body, yet it has great pretensions. Think how small a flame sets a huge forest ablaze.

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.”

But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out – he will be blessed in what he does.

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!

For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was.

You believe that God is one; well and good. Even the demons believe that – and tremble with fear.

For every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature is subdued and has been subdued by humankind.

With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people made in God’s image.