A Greeting from James (Jude 1:1–2)
1 UDB I, James, serve God and am bound to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. I am writing this letter to the twelve Jewish tribes who trust in Christ and who are scattered throughout the world. I greet you all. BSB BSB: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes of the Dispersion: Greetings.
Rejoicing in Trials (Philippians 1:12–20)
2 UDB My fellow believers, consider it something to greatly rejoice over when you experience various kinds of hardships. BSB BSB: Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds,
3 UDB Understand that as you trust God in hardships, they help you to endure even more hardships. BSB BSB: because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
4 UDB Endure hardships to their very end so that you may follow Christ in every way. Then you will not fail to do well. BSB BSB: Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
6 UDB But when you ask God, trust him to answer you. Do not doubt that he will answer and always help you because a person who keeps doubting God cannot follow him, like a wave of the sea that is blown back and forth by the wind and thus cannot continue in the same direction. BSB BSB: But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
7 UDB Indeed, a person who doubts should not think that the Lord will do anything that they request him to do. BSB BSB: That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
8 UDB For he is a person who cannot decide whether he will follow Jesus or not follow Jesus. That is a person who does not do what he promised he would to do. BSB BSB: He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9 UDB Believers who are poor should be glad because God has honored them. BSB BSB: The brother in humble circumstances should exult in his high position.
10 UDB And believers who are rich should be glad that God has humbled them, which helps them trust in Jesus Christ, because they and their riches will pass away just as wild flowers wither. BSB BSB: But the one who is rich should exult in his low position, because he will pass away like a flower of the field.
11 UDB When the sun rises, the scorching hot wind dries the plants and causes the flowers to fall and no longer be beautiful. Like the flowers that die, rich people will die while they are earning money. BSB BSB: For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its flower falls and its beauty is lost. So too, the rich man will fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
12 UDB God honors those who endure hard trials. He will reward them by making them live forever as he has promised to do for all who love him. BSB BSB: Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.
Good and Perfect Gifts 14 UDB But everyone wants to do evil, and so they do it, just as if they are falling into a trap. BSB BSB: But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed.
15 UDB After that, their evil thoughts lead them to commit sin, and this sin takes over their minds until it destroys them. BSB BSB: Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
16 UDB My fellow believers whom I love, stop deceiving yourselves. BSB BSB: Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.
17 UDB Every truly good and perfect gift comes from God the Father who is in heaven. He is the true God who gives us light. God does not change like created things change, like shadows that appear and disappear. God never changes and he is always good! BSB BSB: Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.
18 UDB God chose to give us spiritual life when we trusted in his true message. So now believers in Jesus have become the first people to have true spiritual life, which only Jesus can give. BSB BSB: He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of His creation.
Hearing and Doing 19 UDB My fellow believers whom I love, you know that every one of you should be eager to pay attention to God's true message. You should not quickly speak your own thoughts nor quickly get angry, BSB BSB: My beloved brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,
20 UDB because when we get angry we cannot do the righteous things that God wants us to do. BSB BSB: for man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness that God desires.
21 UDB So stop doing all kinds of evil and humbly accept the message that God planted in your inner beings because he is able to save you if you accept his message. BSB BSB: Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and every expression of evil, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save your souls.
22 UDB Do what God commands in his message. Do not only listen to it, because people who only listen to it and do not obey it think wrongly that God will save them. BSB BSB: Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.
23 UDB Some people hear God's message but do not do what it says. They are like someone who looks at his face in a mirror. BSB BSB: For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror,
24 UDB Although he looks at himself, he goes away from the mirror and immediately forgets what he looks like. BSB BSB: and after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
25 UDB But other people look closely at God's message, which is perfect and which sets people free to voluntarily do what God wants them to do. And if they continue to examine God's message and do not just hear it and then forget it but do what God tells them to do, then God will bless them because of what they do. BSB BSB: But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does.
26 UDB Some people think that they worship God rightly, but they habitually speak evil talk. Those people are wrong in thinking that they worship God rightly. The fact is that they worship God in vain. BSB BSB: If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless.
27 UDB One of the things that God has told us to do is to take care of orphans and widows who suffer hardship. Those who do that and who do not think or act immorally like those who do not obey God, truly worship God who is our Father, and God approves of them. BSB BSB: Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.