5
You rich people, watch yourselves!
1 Listen to me, you people who are so rich. You had better start to cry now, because big trouble is coming to you soon.
2 Your things are spoilt now. Your clothes are worn out, 3 and your gold and silver are spoilt. And because they are spoilt I know that you are bad people. Just as your silver and gold have spoiled, your flesh will go bad. You have been busy all the time collecting money for later.
4 Look! You haven't paid the men who work for you. They have gathered your food crops and taken them to you, and you haven't given them any money. It is as though that money is speaking bad words about you to God. He is the most powerful Lord and he has heard them.
5 You have done whatever you liked here in this world. You have thought about yourselves all the time. You have done just as you wanted day and night, eating and growing fat. Listen! When bullocks grow fat, what do people do? They kill them, so now you are like that fat bullock! 6 You have judged good people and said, “Those people are bad.” They couldn't do anything and so you murdered them.
About being patient and praying to God
7 Brothers and sisters, keep going carefully along God's road until Jesus comes back again.
Think about yams. When it rains they get fat for you to eat. You wait patiently until they get fat and when the time comes you dig them. 8 In the same way we must keep waiting patiently until the Lord Jesus comes back. So don't be upset, because Jesus really will come back here soon.
9 Don't grumble to each other, brothers and sisters, so that Jesus will not blame you. He is the one who will decide whether you are good or bad. He has already got up to come here.
10 Listen, brothers and sisters. Long ago the prophets used to tell God's word to his people. When they suffered and were upset they didn't grumble. 11 We know that God was pleased with them because they didn't grumble.
Think about Job who lived long ago. He suffered but he kept waiting and waiting and at last God helped him, because God is kind and full of pity.
12 Brothers and sisters, listen to me carefully. You are using God's name to make your word strong. Don't use God's name, or talk about heaven or any other place in that way. When you want to say something, just say, “Yes” or “No,” and that is enough. Then God won't blame you.
13 Has something bad happened to one of you and you are upset about it? If you are upset, tell God about it. Don't grumble but pray to God.
Are you happy today? If you are rejoicing, praise God with songs.
14 Are you sick today? If you are sick, send for the church elders, and they will pray for you. And they will put olive oil on your head, and use Jesus' name. 15 Those people trust in the Lord Jesus, so when they ask him to heal one of you who is sick, the Lord Jesus will heal you, and he will forgive the wrong things that you have done.
16 Don't hide your sins, but tell one of God's people about them. Then he will pray to God for you. And you should pray to God for him too, so that God can heal you both. When good people pray to God their words are powerful.
17 Think of Elijah who lived long ago and was just like us. He prayed that there would be no rain, and no rain fell for three and a half years. There was no rain in all that time. 18 Then later he prayed to God that there would be rain again. And rain fell and plants grew again for food.
Last words
19 Brothers and sisters, maybe one of you will leave God's good road and do something wrong. Then maybe another one of you will bring him back to that road. 20 Remember, if you bring a bad person back to God's road you will help him, so that God will forgive him and so that he won't die.