Moff YAC Chapter 4

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11 Do not defame one another, brothers; he who defames or judges his brother defames and judges the Law; and if you judge the Law, you pass sentence on it instead of obeying it. 12 One alone is the legislator, who passes sentence; it is He who is able to save and to destroy; who are you, to judge your neighbour?

14 My brothers, what is the use of anyone declaring he has faith, if he has no deeds to show? Can his faith save him? 15 Suppose some brother or sister is ill-clad and short of daily food; 16 if any of you says to them, "Depart in peace! Get warm, get food," without supplying their bodily needs, what use is that? 17 So faith, unless it has deeds, is dead in itself. 18 Someone will object, "And you claim to have faith!" Yes, and I claim to have deeds as well; you show me your faith without any deeds, and I will show you by my deeds what faith is! 19 You believe in one God? Well and good. So do the devils, and they shudder. 20 But will you understand, you senseless fellow, that faith without deeds is dead?

21 When our father Abraham offered his son Isaac on the altar, was he not justified by what he did? 22 In his case, you see, faith co-operated with deeds, faith was completed by deeds, 23 and the scripture was fulfilled: Abraham believed God, and this was counted to him as righteousness--he was called God's friend. 24 You observe it is by what he does that a man is justified, not simply by what he believes. 25 So too with Rahab the harlot. Was she not justified by what she did, when she entertained the scouts and got them away by a different road?

For as the body without the breath of life is dead,

so faith is dead without deeds.

17 Whoever, then, knows what is right to do and does not do it, that is a sin for him.

3 My brothers, do not swell the ranks of the teachers; remember, we teachers will be judged with special strictness. 2 We all make many a slip, but whoever avoids slips of speech is a perfect man; he can bridle the whole of the body as well as the tongue. 3 We put bridles into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, and so, you see, we can move the whole of their bodies. 4 Look at ships too; for all their size and speed under stiff winds, they are turned by a tiny rudder wherever the mind of the steersman chooses. 5 So the tongue is a small member of the body, but it can boast of great exploits. What a forest is set ablaze by a little spark of fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, the tongue proves a very world of mischief among our members, staining the whole of the body and setting fire to the round circle of existence with a flame fed by hell. 7 For while every kind of beast and bird, of creeping animals and creatures marine, is tameable and has been tamed by mankind, 8 no man can tame the tongue--plague of disorder that it is, full of deadly venom! 9 With the tongue we bless the Lord and Father, and with the tongue we curse men made in God's likeness; 10 blessing and cursing stream from the same lips! My brothers, this ought not to be. 11 Does a fountain pour out fresh water and brackish from the same hole? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives? Or a vine, figs? No more can salt water yield fresh. 13 Who among you is wise and learned? Let him show by his good conduct, with the modesty of wisdom, what his deeds are. 14 But if you are cherishing bitter jealousy and rivalry in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on that--and be false to the truth. 15 That is not the wisdom which comes down from above, it is an earthly wisdom, sensuous, devilish; 16 for wherever jealousy and rivalry exist, there disorder reigns and every evil. 17 The wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, forbearing, conciliatory, full of mercy and wholesome fruit, unambiguous, straightforward; 18 and the peacemakers who sow in peace reap righteousness.

4 Where do conflicts, where do wrangles come from, in your midst? Is it not from these passions of yours that war among your members? 2 You crave, and miss what you want: you envy and covet, but you cannot acquire: you wrangle and fight--you miss what you want because you do not ask God for it; 3 you do ask and you do not get it, because you ask with the wicked intention of spending it on your pleasures. 4 (Wanton creatures! do you not know that the world's friendship means enmity to God? Whoever, then, chooses to be the world's friend, turns enemy to God. 5 What, do you consider this is an idle word of scripture?--"He yearns jealously for the spirit he set within us.") 6 Yet he gives grace more and more: thus it is said,

The haughty God opposes,

but to the humble he gives grace.

Well then, submit yourselves to God;

resist the devil,

and he will fly from you:

draw near to God,

and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners,

and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Lament and mourn and weep,

let your laughter be turned to mourning,

and your joy to depression;

humble yourselves before the Lord,

and then he will raise you up. 13 Come now, you who say, "To-day or to-morrow we are going to such and such a city; we shall spend a year there trading and making money" —14 you who know nothing about to-morrow! For what is your life? You are but a mist, which appears for a little and then vanishes. 15 You ought rather to say, "If the Lord will, we shall live to do this or that." 16 But here you are, boasting in your proud pretensions! All such boasting is wicked.

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