| Chapter 1 |
1 |
James, bondman of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the dispersion, greeting. |
2 |
Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into various temptations, |
3 |
knowing that the proving of your faith works endurance. |
4 |
But let endurance have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. |
5 |
But if any one of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all freely and reproaches not, and it shall be given to him: |
6 |
but let him ask in faith, nothing doubting. For he that doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed about; |
7 |
for let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord; |
8 |
he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. |
9 |
But let the brother of low degree glory in his elevation, |
10 |
and the rich in his humiliation, because as the grass`s flower he will pass away. |
11 |
For the sun has risen with its burning heat, and has withered the grass, and its flower has fallen, and the comeliness of its look has perished: thus the rich also shall wither in his goings. |
12 |
Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for, having been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which He has promised to them that love him. |
13 |
Let no man, being tempted, say, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted by evil things, and himself tempts no one. |
14 |
But every one is tempted, drawn away, and enticed by his own lust; |
15 |
then lust, having conceived, gives birth to sin; but sin fully completed brings forth death. |
16 |
Do not err, my beloved brethren. |
17 |
Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights, with whom is no variation nor shadow of turning. |
18 |
According to his own will begat he us by the word of truth, that we should be a certain first-fruits of *his* creatures. |
19 |
So that, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; |
20 |
for man`s wrath does not work God`s righteousness. |
21 |
Wherefore, laying aside all filthiness and abounding of wickedness, accept with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. |
22 |
But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, beguiling yourselves. |
23 |
For if any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, *he* is like to a man considering his natural face in a mirror: |
24 |
for he has considered himself and is gone away, and straightway he has forgotten what he was like. |
25 |
But *he* that fixes his view on the perfect law, that of liberty, and abides in it, being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, *he* shall be blessed in his doing. |
26 |
If any one think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, this man`s religion is vain. |
27 |
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep oneself unspotted from the world. |