Happy is the one who endures testing, because when he has proven to be genuine, he will receive the crown of life that God promised to those who love him.

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

For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror.

Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?

But if you fulfill the royal law as expressed in this scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well.

Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, "The spirit that God caused to live within us has an envious yearning"?

You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes.

You ought to say instead, "If the Lord is willing, then we will live and do this or that."