Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? ¹  So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town ¹  and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”

Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. ¹  He who speaks against a fellow believer ²  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. ³ 

But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves.

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? ¹ 

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. ¹ 

Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint ¹  him with oil in the name of the Lord.

So put away all filth and evil excess and humbly ¹  welcome the message implanted within you, which is able to save your souls.

And above all, my brothers and sisters, ¹  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.

But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him.

For judgment is merciless for the one who has shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over ¹  judgment.

Speak and act as those who will be judged by a law that gives freedom. ¹ 

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, ¹  if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can this kind of faith ²  save him? ³ 

If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile.

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! ¹  Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.

For where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is disorder and every evil practice.

But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, ¹  and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out – he ²  will be blessed in what he does. ³ 

For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets ¹  what sort of person he was.

Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, ¹  or a vine produce figs? Neither can a salt water spring produce fresh water.

Grieve, mourn, ¹  and weep. Turn your laughter ²  into mourning and your joy into despair.