Thursday, February 11

7Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

8Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

11Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

12There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?

13Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit';

14whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

15Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.'

16But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

17Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

1Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!

2Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.

3Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.

4Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

5You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

6You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

7Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.

8You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

9Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!

27Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him.

28And they said to Him, 'By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?'

29But Jesus answered and said to them, 'I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things:

30The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me.'

31And they reasoned among themselves, saying, 'If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'

32But if we say, 'From men' '—they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed.

33So they answered and said to Jesus, 'We do not know.' And Jesus answered and said to them, 'Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.'