Bible Studies

James 1:2-5, 17, 22; 2:8-10, 14, 17-20; 3:8-10; 4:3-4, 10, 17; 5:14-16: ²Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  ⁴And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  ⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.… ¹⁷Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.… ²²But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.… ⁸If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. ⁹But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.  ¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.… ¹⁴What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can that faith save him? … ¹⁷So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.  ¹⁸But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  ¹⁹You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!  ²⁰Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? … ⁸but no human being can tame the tongue.  It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.  ⁹With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.  ¹⁰From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.  My brothers, these things ought not to be so.…³You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.  ⁴You adulterous people!  Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?  Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.… ¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.… ¹⁷So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.…¹⁴Is anyone among you sick?  Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.  ¹⁵And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.  And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.  ¹⁶Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working (ESV).   

Jude 3-4, 24-25: ³Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.  ⁴For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.… ²⁴Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, ²⁵to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.  Amen (ESV).