Chapter 5

Misuse of Riches

1 aCome now, byou rich, cweep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.

2 aYour riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten.

3 Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is ain the last days that you have stored up your treasure!

4 Behold, athe pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and bthe outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of cthe Lord of 1Sabaoth.

5 You have alived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have 1fattened your hearts in ba day of slaughter.

6 You have condemned and 1aput to death bthe righteous man; he does not resist you.

Exhortation

7 Therefore be patient, abrethren, buntil the coming of the Lord. cThe farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until 1it gets dthe early and late rains.

8 aYou too be patient; bstrengthen your hearts, for cthe coming of the Lord is dnear.

9 aDo not 1complain, bbrethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, cthe Judge is standing 2dright at the 3door.

10 As an example, abrethren, of suffering and patience, take bthe prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

11 We count those ablessed who endured. You have heard of bthe 1endurance of Job and have seen cthe 2outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that dthe Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.

12 But above all, amy brethren, bdo not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but 1your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.

13 Is anyone among you asuffering? bThen he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to csing praises.

14 Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for athe elders of the church and they are to pray over him, 1banointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;

15 and the aprayer 1offered in faith will 2brestore the one who is sick, and the Lord will craise him up, and if he has committed sins, 3they will be forgiven him.

16 Therefore, aconfess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be bhealed. cThe effective 1prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

17 Elijah was aa man with a nature like ours, and bhe prayed 1earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for cthree years and six months.

18 Then he aprayed again, and bthe 1sky 2poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.

19 My brethren, aif any among you strays from bthe truth and one turns him back,

20 let him know that 1he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will asave his soul from death and will bcover a multitude of sins.

The First Letter of

PETER

Chapter 1

A Living Hope, and a Sure Salvation

1 aPeter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who reside as baliens, cscattered throughout dPontus, eGalatia, dCappadocia, dAsia, and fBithynia, gwho are chosen

2 according to the aforeknowledge of God the Father, bby the sanctifying work of the Spirit, 1to cobey Jesus Christ and be dsprinkled with His blood: eMay grace and peace 2be yours in the fullest measure.

3 aBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who baccording to His great mercy chas caused us to be born again to da living hope through the eresurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 to obtain an ainheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and bwill not fade away, creserved in heaven for you,

5 who are aprotected by the power of God bthrough faith for ca salvation ready dto be revealed in the last time.

6 aIn this you greatly rejoice, even though now bfor a little while, cif necessary, you have been distressed by dvarious 1trials,

7 so that the 1aproof of your faith, being more precious than gold which 2is perishable, beven though tested by fire, cmay be found to result in praise and glory and honor at dthe revelation of Jesus Christ;

8 and athough you have not seen Him, you blove Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and 1full of glory,

9 obtaining as athe outcome of your faith the salvation of 1your souls.

10 aAs to this salvation, the prophets who bprophesied of the cgrace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries,

11 1seeking to know what person or time athe Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He bpredicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories 2to follow.

12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who apreached the gospel to you by bthe Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which cangels long to 1look.

13 Therefore, 1aprepare your minds for action, 2bkeep sober in spirit, fix your chope completely on the dgrace 3to be brought to you at ethe revelation of Jesus Christ.

14 As 1aobedient children, do not 2bbe conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your cignorance,

15 but 1alike the Holy One who called you, 2bbe holy yourselves also cin all your behavior;

16 because it is written, “aYou shall be holy, for I am holy.”

17 If you aaddress as Father the One who bimpartially cjudges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves din fear during the time of your estay on earth;

18 knowing that you were not 1aredeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your bfutile way of life inherited from your forefathers,

19 but with precious ablood, as of a blamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

20 For He was aforeknown before bthe foundation of the world, but has cappeared 1in these last times dfor the sake of you

21 who through Him are abelievers in God, who raised Him from the dead and bgave Him glory, so that your faith and chope are in God.

22 Since you have ain obedience to the truth bpurified your souls for a 1csincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from 2the heart,

23 for you have been aborn again bnot of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring cword of God.

24 For,

“aAll flesh is like grass,

And all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

And the flower falls off,

25 aBut the word of the Lord endures forever.”

And this is bthe word which was 1preached to you.

Chapter 2

As Newborn Babes

1 Therefore, aputting aside all 1malice and all deceit and 2hypocrisy and 2envy and all 2bslander,

2 alike newborn babies, long for the 1bpure 2milk of the word, so that by it you may cgrow 3in respect to salvation,

3 if you have atasted 1bthe kindness of the Lord.

As Living Stones

4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been arejected by men, but is 1choice and precious in the sight of God,

5 ayou also, as living stones, 1are being built up as a bspiritual house for a holy cpriesthood, to doffer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

6 For this is contained in 1Scripture:

“aBehold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a bprecious corner stone,

And he who believes in 2Him will not be 3disappointed.”

7 aThis precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve,

“bThe stone which the builders crejected,

This became the very corner stone,”

8 and,

“aA stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”;

bfor they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, cand to this doom they were also appointed.

9 But you are aa chosen race, a royal bpriesthood, a choly nation, da people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you eout of darkness into His marvelous light;

10 afor you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

11 aBeloved, bI urge you as caliens and strangers to abstain from dfleshly lusts which wage ewar against the soul.

12 aKeep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they bslander you as evildoers, they may 1because of your good deeds, as they observe them, cglorify God din the day of 2visitation.

Honor Authority

13 aSubmit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority,

14 or to governors as sent 1by him afor the punishment of evildoers and the bpraise of those who do right.

15 For 1asuch is the will of God that by doing right you may bsilence the ignorance of foolish men.

16 Act as afree men, and 1do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bbondslaves of God.

17 aHonor all people, blove the brotherhood, cfear God, dhonor the 1king.

18 aServants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and bgentle, but also to those who are 1unreasonable.

19 For this finds 1favor, if for the sake of aconscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.

20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if awhen you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds 1favor with God.

Christ Is Our Example

21 For ayou have been called for this purpose, bsince Christ also suffered for you, leaving you can example for you to follow in His steps,

22 who acommitted no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth;

23 1and while being areviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;

24 and He Himself 1abore our sins in His body on the 2bcross, so that we cmight die to 3sin and live to righteousness; for dby His 4wounds you were ehealed.

25 For you were acontinually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the bShepherd and 1Guardian of your souls.