Do they not blaspheme the good name that was called upon you?

If, agreeably to the scriptures, you observe that royal law, "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self," you do well.

But, if you worship rank, you commit a sin, and stand convicted by that same law of being offenders against it.

for he that violates but one precept of the whole law, is as obnoxious to punishment, as if he had broke thro' all the rest.

For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou dost not commit adultery, but killest, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

So speak ye, and so do, as men that are to be judged by a law of liberty.

For judgment is without mercy to him that hath showed no mercy: mercy glorieth against judgment.

What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? can that faith save him?

Can that faith save him? If a brother or a sister be naked,

and one of you says to him, "Blessings on you, keep warm, eat until you have aplenty," without giving him the things that are needed for the body, what good does it do?

Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well: the demons also believe, and shudder.

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren?

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar?

Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect;

And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and this [faith] was credited to him [by God] as righteousness and as conformity to His will,” and he was called the friend of God.

Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.

And in like manner was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?

Be not many of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment.

for we are all liable to frequent mistakes. he that does not give too great a loose to his tongue, is an accomplish'd person and fit to moderate the whole church.

Now if we put the horses bridles into their mouths that they may obey us, we turn about their whole body also.

And look at ships! They are so big that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are steered by a tiny rudder wherever the helmsman directs.

And, the tongue, is a fire, - as , the world of unrighteousness, the tongue, becometh fixed among our members, that which defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the wheel of our natural life, and is set on fire, by gehenna!

no man can tame the tongue, restless evil that it is, full of deadly poison.

By that we give praises to God the father: and that pronounces curses even against men, who are form'd after the divine resemblance.

Out of the same mouth goes forth blessing and cursing. It is not right, my brethren, that these things should be thus.

can a fig-tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine figs? no more can the sea yield water that is fresh.

Who among you is wise and intelligent? Let him show by his noble living that his good deeds are done in humility, which wisdom prompts.

But if you have bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, do not be boasting of that, and be false to the truth.

This wisdom is not a wisdom that cometh down from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy.

And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for them that make peace.

Whence come wars and whence come fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members?

You are jealous and covet [what others have] and your lust goes unfulfilled; so you murder. You are envious and cannot obtain [the object of your envy]; so you fight and battle. You do not have because you do not ask [it of God].

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures.

Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God.

Or think ye that the scripture speaketh in vain? Doth the spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envying?

But he gives more grace. So that the Writings say, God is against the men of pride, but he gives grace to those who make themselves low before him.

Come close to God [with a contrite heart] and He will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; and purify your [unfaithful] hearts, you double-minded [people].

Speak not one against another, brethren. He that speaketh against a brother, or judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

One only is the lawgiver and judge, even he who is able to save and to destroy: but who art thou that judgest thy neighbor?

Come now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain:

whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that.

But, as the case stands, it is in mere self-confidence that you boast: all such boasting is evil.

To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Come now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you.

and your gold and silver by rust: that rust shall convict you: that rust shall corrode your flesh like a caustic, which you have treasur'd up against the last days.

Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

Murmur not, brethren, one against another, that ye be not judged: behold, the judge standeth before the doors.

Behold, we call them blessed that endured: ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful.

But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by the heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath: but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; that ye fall not under judgment.

and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him.

Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working.

Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months.

let him know, that he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that dwell here and there as strangers throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia;

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace [that special sense of spiritual well-being] be yours in increasing abundance [as you walk closely with God].

unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

who are always guarded by the power of God through faith, in order that you may receive that final salvation which will be ready to be uncovered for you at the last time.

This it is that fills you with joy, notwithstanding the various tryals, which still necessarily afflict you,

that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ:

Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that'should come unto you:

searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow them.

To whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto you, did they minister these things, which now have been announced unto you through them that preached the gospel unto you by the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven; which things angel desire to look into.

Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

[Live] as obedient children [of God]; do not be conformed to the evil desires which governed you in your ignorance [before you knew the requirements and transforming power of the good news regarding salvation].

But, according as he that hath called you is holy, do, ye yourselves, also become, holy in all manner of behaviour, -

And if so be that ye call on the father, which without respect of person judgeth according to every man's works, see that ye pass the time of your pilgrimage in fear:

knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers;

but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without a blemish or a blot,

For He was foreordained (foreknown) before the foundation of the world, but has appeared [publicly] in these last times for your sake

who through him are believers in God, that raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.

Now that by obedience to the truth you have purified your lives for a brotherly love without hypocrisy, you must love one another from your hearts, fervently.

begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God that lives and remains into the age.

but the word of Lord endures into the age. And this is the word, the good-news that was preached to you.

Renouncing therefore every kind of malice, and knavery, hypocrisy, envy, and detraction, as new-born infants desire that mystical milk,

as newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation;

if ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious:

Come to him then, that living Stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, and precious.

and keep on building yourselves up, as living stones, into a spiritual house for a consecrated priesthood, to offer up, through Jesus Christ, spiritual sacrifices that will be acceptable to God.

Because it is contained in scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: And he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame.

For you therefore that believe is the preciousness: but for such as disbelieve, The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner;

and,“A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”; for they stumble because they disobey the word [of God], and to this they [who reject Him as Savior] were also appointed.

But ye are a elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

I beseech you, beloved, as pilgrims and exiles, to abstain from passions of the flesh that war upon your souls.

having your behavior seemly among the Gentiles; that, wherein they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Submit yourselves unto every human creation, for the Lord's sake, - whether unto a king, as one that protecteth,

or unto governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evil-doers and for praise to them that do well.

For so is the will of God, that by well-doing ye should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

See that ye honour all men. Love brotherly fellowship, fear God, and honour the King.

You that are servants, be subject to your masters with all reverence: not only to such as are kind and gentle,

After all, what kind of credit is there if, when you do wrong and are punished for it, you endure it patiently? But if when you do what is right and patiently bear [undeserved] suffering, this finds favor with God.

For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps:

who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:

who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.

You were "like sheep that kept going astray," but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

In like manner, ye wives, be in subjection to your won husbands; that, even if any obey not the word, they may without the word be gained by the behavior of their wives;

when they see your modest and respectful behavior [together with your devotion and appreciation—love your husband, encourage him, and enjoy him as a blessing from God].

Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;

but rather that hidden personality of the heart, the imperishable ornament of a quiet and gentle spirit, which in the sight of God is indeed precious.