Chapter 1
1 James , a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ , to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion : Greetings .
2 Count it all joy , my brothers, when you fall into various temptations ,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance .
4 Let endurance have its perfect work , 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 liberally and without reproach , and it will be given to him .
6 But let him ask in faith , without any doubting , for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea , driven by the wind and tossed .
7 For that man shouldn’ t think that he will receive anything from the Lord .
8 He is a double-minded man , unstable in all his ways .
9 Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position ;
10 and the rich , in that he is made humble , because like the flower in the grass , he will pass away .
11 For the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers the grass ; and the flower in it falls , and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits .
12 Blessed is a person who endures temptation , for when he has been approved , he will receive the crown of life which the Lord promised to those who love him .
13 Let no man say when he is tempted , " I am tempted by God ," for God can ’ t be tempted by evil , and he himself tempts no one .
14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed .
15 Then the lust , when it has conceived , bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death .
16 Don’t be deceived , my beloved brothers.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above , coming down from the Father of lights , with whom can be no variation nor turning shadow.
18 Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures .
19 So , then , my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak , and slow to anger ;
20 for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God .
21 Therefore , putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness , receive with humility the implanted word , which is able to save your souls .
22 But be doers of the word , and not only hearers, deluding your own selves .
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer , he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror ;
24 for he sees himself , and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was .
25 But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the work , this man will be blessed in what he does .
26 If anyone amongst you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’ t bridle his tongue , but deceives his heart , this man ’s religion is worthless .
27 Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this : to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction , and to keep oneself unstained by the world .