Hebrews 13

Jesus Doesn't Change

1 Stay on good terms with each other, held together by love.2 Be ready with a meal or a bed when it's needed. Why, some have extended hospitality to angels without ever knowing it!3 Regard prisoners as if you were in prison with them. Look on victims of abuse as if what happened to them had happened to you.4 Honor marriage, and guard the sacredness of sexual intimacy between wife and husband. God draws a firm line against casual and illicit sex.

5 Don't be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, "I'll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,"6 we can boldly quote, God is there, ready to help; I'm fearless no matter what. Who or what can get to me?

7 Appreciate your pastoral leaders who gave you the Word of God. Take a good look at the way they live, and let their faithfulness instruct you, as well as their truthfulness. There should be a consistency that runs through us all.8 For Jesus doesn't change-yesterday, today, tomorrow, he's always totally himself.

9 Don't be lured away from him by the latest speculations about him. The grace of Christ is the only good ground for life. Products named after Christ don't seem to do much for those who buy them.

10 The altar from which God gives us the gift of himself is not for exploitation by insiders who grab and loot.11 In the old system, the animals are killed and the bodies disposed of outside the camp. The blood is then brought inside to the altar as a sacrifice for sin.12 It's the same with Jesus. He was crucified outside the city gates-that is where he poured out the sacrificial blood that was brought to God's altar to cleanse his people.

13 So let's go outside, where Jesus is, where the action is-not trying to be privileged insiders, but taking our share in the abuse of Jesus.14 This "insider world" is not our home. We have our eyes peeled for the City about to come.15 Let's take our place outside with Jesus, no longer pouring out the sacrificial blood of animals but pouring out sacrificial praises from our lips to God in Jesus' name.

16 Make sure you don't take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship-a different kind of "sacrifice"-that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.

17 Be responsive to your pastoral leaders. Listen to their counsel. They are alert to the condition of your lives and work under the strict supervision of God. Contribute to the joy of their leadership, not its drudgery. Why would you want to make things harder for them?

18 Pray for us. We have no doubts about what we're doing or why, but it's hard going and we need your prayers. All we care about is living well before God.19 Pray that we may be together soon.20 May God, who puts all things together, makes all things whole, Who made a lasting mark through the sacrifice of Jesus, the sacrifice of blood that sealed the eternal covenant, Who led Jesus, our Great Shepherd, up and alive from the dead,21 Now put you together, provide you with everything you need to please him, Make us into what gives him most pleasure, by means of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah. All glory to Jesus forever and always! Oh, yes, yes, yes.

22 Friends, please take what I've written most seriously. I've kept this as brief as possible; I haven't piled on a lot of extras.23 You'll be glad to know that Timothy has been let out of prison. If he leaves soon, I'll come with him and get to see you myself.

24 Say hello to your pastoral leaders and all the congregations. Everyone here in Italy wants to be remembered to you.

25 Grace be with you, every one.

James 1

1 I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello!

2 Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides.3 You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.4 So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

5 If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it.6 Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves.7 Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way,8 adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

9 When down-and-outers get a break, cheer!10 And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don't ever count on it.11 You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that's a picture of the "prosperous life." At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.

12 Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.

13 Don't let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, "God is trying to trip me up." God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one's way.14 The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust.15 Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.

16 So, my very dear friends, don't get thrown off course.17 Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle.18 He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.

Act on What You Hear

19 Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear.20 God's righteousness doesn't grow from human anger.21 So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.

22 Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!23 Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror,24 walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.

25 But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God-the free life!-even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.

26 Anyone who sets himself up as "religious" by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air.27 Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

James 2

The Royal Rule of Love

1 My dear friends, don't let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith.2 If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him,3 and you say to the man in the suit, "Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!" and either ignore the street person or say, "Better sit here in the back row,"4 haven't you segregated God's children and proved that you are judges who can't be trusted?

5 Listen, dear friends. Isn't it clear by now that God operates quite differently? He chose the world's down-and-out as the kingdom's first citizens, with full rights and privileges. This kingdom is promised to anyone who loves God.6 And here you are abusing these same citizens! Isn't it the high and mighty who exploit you, who use the courts to rob you blind?7 Aren't they the ones who scorn the new name-"Christian"-used in your baptisms?

8 You do well when you complete the Royal Rule of the Scriptures: "Love others as you love yourself."9 But if you play up to these so-called important people, you go against the Rule and stand convicted by it.10 You can't pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God's law and ignoring others.11 The same God who said, "Don't commit adultery," also said, "Don't murder." If you don't commit adultery but go ahead and murder, do you think your non-adultery will cancel out your murder? No, you're a murderer, period.

12 Talk and act like a person expecting to be judged by the Rule that sets us free.13 For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time.

Faith in Action

14 Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it?15 For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved16 and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup-where does that get you?17 Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?

18 I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department." Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.

19 Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them?20 Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?

21 Wasn't our ancestor Abraham "made right with God by works" when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar?22 Isn't it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are "works of faith"?23 The full meaning of "believe" in the Scripture sentence, "Abraham believed God and was set right with God," includes his action. It's that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named "God's friend."24 Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works?

25 The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn't her action in hiding God's spies and helping them escape-that seamless unity of believing and doing-what counted with God?26 The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.