But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he has prepared for them a city.

Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from which also he received him in a figure.

Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time;

And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

Looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not?

Looking diligently lest any man fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

But you are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, who are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

Therefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

For our God is a consuming fire.

Let marriage be held in honor by all, and the bed undefiled: but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

Remember them who have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their manner of life.

Be not carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with foods, which have not profited them that have been observing them.

Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.

By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

But to do good and to share forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

Make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally, and reproaches not; and it shall be given him.

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man:

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

For the anger of man works not the righteousness of God.

Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

And you have respect to him that wears the fine clothing, and say unto him, Sit here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand there, or sit here under my footstool:

Hearken, my beloved brethren, Has not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to them that love him?

You believe that there is one God; you do well: the demons also believe, and tremble.

And the scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

With this bless we God, even the Father; and with this curse we men, who are made after the similitude of God.

Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good life his works with meekness of wisdom.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

But he gives more grace. Therefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee 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.

Come now, you that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever.

To whom coming, as unto a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,

You also, as living stones, are built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Who in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Having your conduct honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

For so is the will of God, that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.

Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.

For this is commendable, if a man for conscience toward God endures grief, suffering wrongfully.

For what glory is it, if, when you be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently? but if, when you do well, and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is commendable with God.

But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

For after this manner in former times the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:

For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:

Let him turn away from evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and pursue it.

And who is he that will harm you, if you be followers of that which is good?

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good behavior in Christ.

For it is better, if the will of God be so, that you suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.

For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit:

Who formerly were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, by which a few, that is, eight souls were saved through water.

The like figure unto which even baptism does also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.

For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

As every man has received a gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

If any man speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man ministers, let him do it as of the ability which God gives: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you; for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

Yet if any man suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begins with us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Therefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for dishonest gain, but of a ready mind;

Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock.

Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

But the God of all grace, who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, restore, establish, strengthen, settle you.

By Silas, a faithful brother unto you, as I regard, I have written briefly, exhorting, and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.

Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, in which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

But whoever keeps his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: by this we know that we are in him.

I have written unto you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God abides forever.

Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not.

Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his nature remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother.

By this perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his heart of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?

For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.