James1

¹James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.

²Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials,

³knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

⁴And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

⁵But 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.

⁶But 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.

⁷For that person ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,

⁸being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

⁹Now the brother or sister of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position;

¹⁰but the rich person is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.

¹¹For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so also the rich person, in the midst of his pursuits, will die out.

¹²Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

¹³No one is to say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.

¹⁴But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

¹⁵Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death.

¹⁶Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters.

¹⁷Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

¹⁸In the exercise of His will He gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.

¹⁹You know this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Now everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;

²⁰for a man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness of God.

²¹Therefore, ridding yourselves of all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

²²But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves.

²³For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;

²⁴for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

²⁵But one who has looked intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and has continued in it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an active doer, this person will be blessed in what he does.

²⁶If anyone thinks himself to be religious, yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this person’s religion is worthless.

²⁷Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.