James

1

¹ James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion: Rejoice!
² Count it all joy, my brothers, whenever you fall into various trials,
³ Knowing that the proving of your faith works out endurance.
⁴ And let endurance have its perfect work that you may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing.
⁵ But if any one of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and does not reproach, and it will be given to him.
⁶ But let him ask in faith, doubting nothing, for he who doubts is like the surge of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed about.
⁷ For that man must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
⁸ He is a double-souled man, unstable in all his ways.
⁹ And let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,
¹⁰ And the rich in his being brought low, 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 off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so also the rich man will fade away in his pursuits.
¹² Blessed is the man who endures trial, because when he has become approved by testing, he will receive the crown of life, which He promised to those who love Him.
¹³ Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted of evil, and He Himself tempts no one.
¹⁴ But each one is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own lusts;
¹⁵ Then the lust, having conceived, gives birth to sin; and the sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.
¹⁶ Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.
¹⁷ All good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variation or shadow cast by turning.
¹⁸ He brought us forth by the word of truth, purposing that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
¹⁹ You know this, my beloved brothers; but let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;
²⁰ For the wrath of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.
²¹ Therefore putting away all filthiness and the abundance of malice, receive in meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
²² And become doers of the word and not hearers only, who delude themselves.
²³ Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this one is like a man considering in a mirror the face he was born with;
²⁴ For he considers himself and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he is.
²⁵ But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continues in it, becoming not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in his doing.
²⁶ If anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this one’s religion is vain.
²⁷ This is pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

2

¹ My brothers, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with respect of persons.
² For if there comes into your synagogue a man with gold rings in splendid clothing, and there also comes in a poor man in filthy clothing,
³ And you look upon the one wearing the splendid 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 reasonings?
⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers: Did not God choose the poor in 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. Is it not the rich who oppress you and is it not they who drag you to the courts?
⁷ Is it not they who blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?
⁸ If indeed you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well;
⁹ But if you respect persons, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.
¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law yet stumbles in one point has become guilty of all.
¹¹ For He who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. Now if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
¹² So speak and so do as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.
¹³ For the judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
¹⁴ What is the profit, my brothers, if anyone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
¹⁵ If a brother or sister is without clothing and lacks daily food,
¹⁶ And any one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, yet you do not give them the necessities of the body, what is the profit?
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 without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
¹⁹ You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe and shudder.
²⁰ But are you willing to know, O vain man, that faith without its works is useless?
²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar?
²² You see that faith worked together with his works, and by these works faith was perfected.
²³ And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God.
²⁴ You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith only.
²⁵ And in like manner was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works in that she received the messengers and sent them out by a different way?
²⁶ For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

3

¹ Do not become many teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive greater judgment.
² For in many things we all stumble. If anyone does not stumble in word, this one is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.
³ Now if we put bridles into the mouths of horses that they would obey us, we direct their whole body as well.
⁴ Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, are directed by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the pilot wills.
⁵ So also the tongue is a little member yet boasts great things. Behold, how great a forest so little a fire ignites!
⁶ And the tongue is a fire; the very world of unrighteousness, the tongue is set among our members as that which contaminates the whole body and sets on fire the course of life and is set on fire by Gehenna.
⁷ For every nature, both of beasts and of birds, both of reptiles and of creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human nature;
⁸ But the tongue no one among men is able to tame; it is 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 according to the likeness of God.
¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things, my brothers, ought not to be so.
¹¹ Does the spring, out of the same opening, gush forth 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 manner of life his works in 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 wisdom is not that which descends from above, but is earthly, soulish, demonic.
¹⁶ For where jealousy and selfish ambition are, there disorder and every worthless practice are.
¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, forbearing, compliant, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, without hypocrisy.
¹⁸ And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

4

¹ Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Are they not from this, from your pleasures that war in your members?
² You lust and do not have; you murder and are jealous and are not able to 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 evilly that you may spend it on your pleasures.
⁴ Adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever determines to be a friend of the world is constituted an enemy of God.
⁵ Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain: The Spirit, whom He has caused to dwell in us, longs unto envy?
⁶ But He gives greater grace; therefore it says, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
⁷ Be subject therefore to God; but withstand 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-souled!
⁹ Endure misery and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into dejection.
¹⁰ Be humbled 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 One is Lawgiver and Judge, who is able to save and destroy. But who are you who judge your neighbor?
¹³ Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit;
¹⁴ Whereas you do not know the matter of tomorrow, what your life will be; for you are a vapor, which appears for a little while and then disappears.
¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will both live and do this or that.
¹⁶ But now you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
¹⁷ Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

5

¹ Come now, you rich, weep, howling over your miseries, which are coming upon you!
² Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten;
³ Your gold and your silver have rusted, 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 workmen who mowed your fields, which have been withheld by you, cry out; and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts.
⁵ You have lived luxuriously on the earth and have given yourselves to pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.
⁶ You condemned, you murdered the righteous; he does not resist you.
⁷ Therefore be long-suffering, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer eagerly awaits the precious fruit of the earth, exercising long-suffering over it until it receives the early and late rain.
⁸ You also be long-suffering; establish your hearts because the coming of the Lord has drawn near.
⁹ Do not complain, brothers, against one another lest you be judged. Behold, the Judge stands before the doors.
¹⁰ As an example, brothers, of suffering evil and of long-suffering, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord.
¹¹ Behold, we call those who endured blessed. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen his end from the Lord, that the Lord is very tenderhearted and compassionate.
¹² But above all things, my brothers, do not swear, neither by heaven nor by earth nor with any other oath; but let your yes be yes, and your no, no, lest you fall under judgment.
¹³ Does anyone among you suffer evil? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
¹⁴ Is anyone among you ill? 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 that you may be healed. The petition of a righteous man avails much in its working.
¹⁷ Elijah was a man of like feeling with us, and he earnestly prayed that it would 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 sprouted forth with its fruit.
¹⁹ My brothers, if any one among you is led astray from the truth and someone turns him back,
²⁰ Let him know that he who turns a sinner back from the error of his way will save that one’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.