practical christian living

²And do not choose to be conformed to this age, but instead choose to be reformed in the newness of your mind, so that you may demonstrate what is the will of God: what is good, and what is well-pleasing, and what is perfect.

³³Therefore, seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added to you as well.

¹⁵Do not choose to love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him.

¹⁶All Scripture, having been divinely inspired, is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in justice,

¹James, servant of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes of the dispersion, greetings. ²My brothers, when you have fallen into various trials, consider everything a joy, ³knowing that the proving of your faith exercises patience, ⁴and patience brings a work to perfection, so that you may be perfect and whole, deficient in nothing. ⁵But if anyone among you is in need of wisdom, let him petition God, who gives abundantly to all without reproach, and it shall be given to him. ⁶But he should ask with faith, doubting nothing. For he who doubts is like a wave on the ocean, which is moved about by the wind and carried away;

³⁸Yet truly, Peter said to them: “Do penance; and be baptized, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

¹²Be cautious, brothers, lest perhaps there may be, in any of you, an evil heart of unbelief, turning aside from the living God. ¹³Instead, exhort one another every day, while it is still called ‘today,’ so that none of you may become hardened through the falseness of sin. ¹⁴For we have been made participants in Christ. This is only so, if we firmly retain the beginning of his substance, even unto the end. ¹⁵For it has been said: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts, in the same manner as in the former provocation.” ¹⁶For some of those listening did provoke him. But not all of these had set forth from Egypt through Moses. ¹⁷So against whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not those who had sinned, whose dead bodies lay prostrate in the desert?

²⁰I live; yet now, it is not I, but truly Christ, who lives in me. And though I live now in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and who delivered himself for me.

²⁰So then, are you willing to understand, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

⁶Whoever declares himself to remain in him, ought to walk just as he himself walked.

¹And certain ones, descending from Judea, were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” ²Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas made no small uprising against them, they decided that Paul and Barnabas, and some from the opposing side, should go up to the Apostles and priests in Jerusalem concerning this question. ³Therefore, being led by the church, they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles. And they caused great joy among all the brothers. ⁴And when they had arrived in Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the Apostles and the elders, reporting what great things God had done with them. ⁵But some from the sect of the Pharisees, those who were believers, rose up saying, “It is necessary for them to be circumcised and to be instructed to keep the Law of Moses.” ⁶And the Apostles and elders came together to take care of this matter.