James

Chapter 1

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion: greetings.

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, whenever you fall into various trials,

3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

4 And let endurance have its perfect work, 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 let him ask in faith, doubting nothing; for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed about.

7 For let that man not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord

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

9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,

10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.

11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass, and its flower falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes; so also the rich man will fade away in his pursuits.

12 Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which he has promised to those who love him.

13 Let no one, when tempted, say, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.

14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own desire;

15 then desire, having conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.

16 Do not 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 there is no variation or shadow of turning.

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

21 Therefore, putting away all filthiness and abundance of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing the face of his birth in a mirror;

24 for he observes himself and goes away and immediately forgets what he was like.

25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in his doing.

26 If anyone thinks he is religious while not bridling his tongue but deceiving his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

27 Religion pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Chapter 2

1 My brothers, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.

2 For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in,

3 and you look upon the one wearing the fine clothing and say, "You sit here in a good place," and to the poor man you say, "You stand there, or sit under my footstool,"

4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

5 Listen, my beloved brothers: has not God chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you, and do they not themselves drag you into courts?

7 Do they not themselves blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?

8 If, however, you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well;

9 but if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.

10 For whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point has become guilty of all of it.

11 For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." And if you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

12 So speak and so act as those who are about to be judged by the law of liberty.

13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

14 What is the benefit, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacking daily food,

16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," but you do not give them what is needed for the body, what is the benefit?

17 So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself.

18 But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith apart from works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.

20 But do you wish to know, O empty man, that faith apart from works is useless?

21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar?

22 You see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made complete,

23 and the scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," and he was called a friend of God.

24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

25 And likewise was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

26 For just as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Chapter 3

1 Do not many of you become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we shall receive a greater judgment.

2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.

3 Now if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole body as well.

4 Behold also the ships: though they are so great and are driven by harsh winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the helmsman wills.

5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts great things. Behold how great a forest so small a fire kindles!

6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is set among our members as the world of unrighteousness, staining the whole body and setting on fire the wheel of existence, and being set on fire by Gehenna.

7 For every kind of beasts and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures, is tamed and has been tamed by humankind,

8 but no one among men can tame the tongue, a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God;

10 out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both the sweet and the bitter?

12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a vine figs? Neither can salt water produce sweet.

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct his works in the meekness of wisdom.

14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not boast and lie against the truth.

15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

16 For where there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every vile deed.

17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, without hypocrisy.

18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Chapter 4

1 From where do wars come, and from where do quarrels among you? Is it not from this: from your pleasures that wage war in your members?

2 You desire and do not have; you murder and are envious and cannot obtain; you fight and make war. You do not have because you do not ask;

3 you ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4 Adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity toward God? Whoever therefore wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think that the scripture speaks in vain: "The spirit which he made to dwell in us longs jealously"?

6 But he gives greater grace; therefore it says: "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

7 Submit therefore to God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9 Be wretched and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

11 Do not speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

12 There is one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you that judge your neighbor?

13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into this city and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"

14 you who do not know what tomorrow will bring, what your life will be; for you are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes

15 instead of your saying, "If the Lord wills, we shall both live and do this or that."

16 But now you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

17 Therefore, to one who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Chapter 5

1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl over the miseries that are coming upon you.

2 Your wealth has rotted, and your garments have become moth-eaten;

3 your gold and silver have corroded, and their rust will be a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days.

4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have withheld, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

5 You have lived in luxury on the earth and in self-indulgence; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one; he does not resist you.

7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it until it receives the early and the late rain.

8 You also be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord has drawn near.

9 Do not groan against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the judge stands before the doors.

10 Take as an example, brothers, of suffering and of patience the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

11 Behold, we count blessed those who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the outcome from the Lord, that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful.

12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, neither by heaven nor by earth nor by any other oath; but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under judgment.

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.

14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him.

16 Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its working.

17 Elijah was a man of like nature with us, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months;

18 and he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.

19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back,

20 let him know that the one who turns a sinner back from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.