As you read this chapter of James keep the following questions in mind. You may even wish to write the questions down on a separate piece of paper before you begin. Allow yourself several lines between each question. When you have finished reading the chapter devote several minutes to your answers. Click on a question to get our interpretation.

2. Why does James tell us to be patient?

3. Why should we not swear, by heaven?

4. What does James have to say about the power of prayer?

James Chapter 5

^5:1Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. ^5:2Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. ^5:3Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. ^5:4Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts. ^5:5You have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. ^5:6You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn't resist you.

^5:7Be patient therefore, brothers, 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 late rain. ^5:8You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

^5:9Don't grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won't be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door. ^5:10Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ^5:11Behold, we call them blessed who endured. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the Lord in the outcome, and how the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. ^5:12But above all things, my brothers, don't swear, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath; but let your "yes" be "yes," and your "no," "no;" so that you don't fall into hypocrisy.

^5:13Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises. ^5:14Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, ^5:15and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ^5:16Confess your offenses to one another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effective, earnest prayer of a righteous man is powerfully effective. ^5:17Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn't rain on the earth for three years and six months. ^5:18He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.

^5:19Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, ^5:20let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.