SS Lesson Text for August 30, 2020
Two Kinds of Wisdom – James 3:13-18; 5:7-12
13. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.
14. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.
15. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.
16. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.
17. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
18. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
7. Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.
8. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
9. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!
10. My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.
11. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
12. But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.
SS Lesson Text for August 23, 2020
Taming The Tongue – James 3:1-12
1. My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.
2. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.
3. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body.
4. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.
5. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!
6. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
7. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.
8. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.
10. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
11. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?
12. Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
SS Lesson Text for August 16, 2020
Faith Without Works is Dead – James 2:14-26
14. What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
15. If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food
16. And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body; what does it profit?
17. Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
18. Yes, a man may say, You have faith, and I have works: show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
19. You believe that there is one God; you do well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
20. But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
21. Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
22. See you how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?
23. And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
24. You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
25. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
26. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
SS Lesson Text for August 9, 2020
Hearing and Doing the Word – James 1:19-27
19. My beloved brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger
20. For man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness that God desires.
21. 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. Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.
23. 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. And after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
25. 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. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless.
27. 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.
SS Lesson Text for August 2, 2020
Faith and Wisdom – James 1:1-11
1. James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.
2. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials
3. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
7. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9. But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position
10. And the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.
11. For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.
