James 1

¹James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

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

³knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

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

⁵If now any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask from God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

⁶But let him ask in faith, without doubting; for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by wind and tossed.

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

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

⁹But let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,

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

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

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

¹³Let no one who is being tempted say, 'I am being tempted by God'; for God is untemptable by evil things, and he himself tempts no one.

¹⁴But each one is tempted by his own desire, being drawn out and enticed.

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

¹⁶Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

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

¹⁸Having willed it, he brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

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

²⁰For human anger does not produce the righteousness of God.

²¹Therefore, having put off all filthiness and excess of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

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

²³Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this one is like a man looking at the face of his birth in a mirror.

²⁴For he observed himself and went away and immediately forgot what he was like.

²⁵But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and continues in it — not having become a forgetful hearer but a doer of deeds — this one will be blessed in his doing.

²⁶If anyone thinks himself to be religious among you, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his heart, the religion of this one is worthless.

²⁷Pure and undefiled religion before God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself spotless from the world.