5
Warning to the Rich
1 Listen now, you rich, weep and howl at your miseries which are coming upon you! 2 Your riches have decayed, and your garments have become moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have become corroded, and their poison will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You stored up treasure in the last days. 4 Indeed, the wages of the laborers who reaped your fields, which were kept back by you, cry out, and the cries of the reapers have entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 You have lived luxuriously upon the earth and you have lived riotously, you have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned; you have murdered the just. He does not resist you.
Patience in Suffering
7 Therefore be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer awaits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient for it, until it receives the early and late rains. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord has drawn near.
9 Do not murmur against one another, brothers, lest you be judged. Behold, the Judge stands before the doors! 10 My brothers, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of evil suffering and of longsuffering. 11 Indeed we count those blessed who endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and you saw the outcome of the Lord, how He is full of compassion and mercy.
12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, neither by heaven nor the earth, nor any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” so that you may not fall into hypocrisy.
The Prayer of Faith
13 Does anyone among you suffer misfortune? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call on the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing 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, it will be forgiven him. 16 Confess your transgressions to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of the righteous is very powerful. 17 Elijah was a man of similar nature to us, and with a prayer, he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and it did not rain upon the land for three years and six months. 18 And again he prayed, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
19 Brothers, if anyone among you wanders away from the truth, and anyone turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner back from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.