Draw near to God and he will draw near to you

St. James' Universal Letter 4:7-17; 5:1-9

BRETHREN, submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will
flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse
your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double
mind. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord and
he will exalt you. Do not speak evil against one another, brethren.
He that speaks evil against a brother or judges his brother, speaks
evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you
are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and
judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you that you
judge your neighbor? Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will
go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and
get gain"; whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life?
For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall
do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such
boasting is evil. Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it,
for him it is sin. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries
that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments
are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will
be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have
laid up treasure for the last days. Behold the wages of the laborers
who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the
cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You
have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened
your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have killed
the righteous man; he does not resist you. Be patient, therefore,
brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the
precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it until it receives the
early and the late rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts,
for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble, brethren,
against one another, that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is
standing at the doors.

If we put bits into the mouths of horses that they may obey us, we guide their whole bodies.

St. James' Universal Letter 3:1-10

BRETHREN, let not many of you become teachers, for you know that we who
teach shall be judged with greater strictness. For we all make many
mistakes, and if any one makes no mistakes in what he says he is a perfect
man, able to bridle the whole body also. If we put bits into the
mouths of horses that they may obey us, we guide their whole bodies.
Look at the ships also; though they are so great and are driven by
strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will
of the pilot directs. So the tongue is a little member and boasts of
great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the
tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members,
staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on
fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea
creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by humankind, but no human being
can tame the tongue - a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it
we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made
in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and
cursing. My brethren, this ought not to be so.

Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God.

St. James' Universal Letter 1:19-27

MY BELOVED BRETHREN, let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak,
slow to anger, for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of
God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness
and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save
your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving
yourselves. For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like
a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; for he observes
himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But he who
looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being
no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in
his doing. If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his
tongue but deceives his heart, this man's religion is vain. Religion
that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit
orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained
from the world.

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

St. James' Universal Letter 1:1-18

JAMES, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve
tribes in the Dispersion: Greeting. Count it all joy, my brethren, when
you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith
produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that
you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you
lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and
without reproaching, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith,
with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is
driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that a
double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, will receive anything from the
Lord. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in
his humiliation, because like the flower of the grass he will pass
away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass;
its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So will the rich man fade
away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who endures
trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life
which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is
tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted with
evil and he himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted when he
is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has
conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth
death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good endowment 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. Of his own
will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind
of first fruits of his creatures.