James

Chapter 1

¹ James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are in the dispersion: Greetings! ² Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials, ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴ But 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 for it from the God who gives generously to all and not rebuking, 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, being driven by the wind and being tossed around. ⁷ For do not let that man think that he will receive anything from the Lord— ⁸ a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. ⁹ But let the lowly brother boast in his high position, ¹⁰ but the rich man in his low position, because he will pass away as a wild flower in the grass. ¹¹ For the sun rises with burning heat and dries up the grass, and its flower falls off, and its beautiful face perishes. In the same way, the rich man will also fade away in his journey. ¹² Blessed is the man who endures testing. For after he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which he promised to those who love him. ¹³ Let no one being tempted say, “I am tempted by God,” for God is not tempted by evil, and he tempts no one. ¹⁴ But each one is tempted by his own desire, drawing him away and enticing him. ¹⁵ Then the desire having conceived, gives birth to sin, and the sin, having fully grown, gives birth to 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 him there is no variation or shadow of turning. ¹⁸ He desired to give us birth by the word of truth, for us to be certain firstfruits of his creatures. ¹⁹ Know this, my beloved brothers: But let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. ²⁰ For the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. ²¹ Therefore, having laid aside all filth and abundance of evil, in meekness receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. ²² But become doers of the word and not only hearers, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word but not a doer, he is like a man who examines his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴ For he examined himself, and had gone away, and immediately forgot what he was like. ²⁵ But the one who has looked carefully into the perfect law that is of freedom, and has continued to do so, not having become a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in his doing. ²⁶ If anyone thinks himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, the religion of this one is worthless. ²⁷ Pure and unstained religion before our God and Father is this: to help the fatherless and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Chapter 2

¹ My brothers, do not hold with partiality the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. ² For if a man in fine clothes wearing gold rings enters into your assembly, and a poor man in dirty clothes also enters, ³ and you pay attention to the one wearing fine clothes and say, “You sit here, please,” but you say to the poor man, “You stand over there” or “Sit at my footstool,” ⁴ are you not distinguishing among yourselves and become judges of evil motives? ⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers, did not God choose the poor of the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you dishonored the poor! Are not the rich oppressing you, and they are dragging you to court? ⁷ Are they not blaspheming the good name which has been called upon you? ⁸ If, however, you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You will love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well. ⁹ But if you show partiality, you are committing sin, being exposed by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law, but may have stumbled in one thing, has become guilty of all of it. ¹¹ For the one who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” But if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹² Thus speak and thus act as those who are going to be judged by means of the law of freedom. ¹³ For judgment is without mercy to those who have shown no mercy. Mercy exults over judgment.

¹⁴ What is the benefit, my brothers, if someone might say he has faith, but he might have no works? That faith is not able to save him, is it? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister might be badly clothed and lacking food for the day, ¹⁶ and one of you might say to them, “Go in peace, be warm and be filled,” but you do not give them the things necessary for the body, what is the benefit? ¹⁷ And in the same way, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. ¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works. ¹⁹ You believe that God is one; you do well, and the demons believe and tremble. ²⁰ But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is useless? ^{[1] 21} Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? ²² You see that faith was working with his works, and by the works his faith was perfected. ²³ And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “But Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God. ²⁴ You see that a man is justified by works, and not only by faith. ²⁵ But in the same way also, was not Rahab the prostitute justified by works, having welcomed the messengers and having sent them away by another road? ²⁶ For just as the body without the spirit is dead, thus also faith without works is dead.

Chapter 3

¹ Let not many of you become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a greater judgment. ² For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in words, he is a perfect man, able to bridle even his whole body. ³ And if we put bits into the mouths of horses for them to obey us, we also direct their whole body. ⁴ Behold, also, ships, being so large and being driven by strong winds, are directed by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the one piloting it desires. ⁵ And in the same manner, the tongue is a small member, and yet it boasts great things. Behold, a small fire sets a large forest ablaze. ⁶ And the tongue is a fire, a world of injustice. The tongue is placed among our members, defiling the whole body and setting on fire the course of our existance, and is set on fire by hell. ⁷ For all kind, both of wild animals and birds, both of reptiles and sea creatures, is being tamed and has been tamed by human nature. ⁸ But no man is able to tame the tongue. 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 from the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to happen in this manner. ¹¹ A spring does not pour out from its same opening sweet and bitter water, does it? ¹² My brothers, a fig tree is not able to make olives, is it? Or a grapevine, figs? Nor can salty water make sweet water.

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show a good life by his works in the gentleness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter jealousy and ambition in your heart, do not boast and lie against the truth. ¹⁵ This is not the wisdom coming down from above. Instead, it is earthly, natural, demonic. ¹⁶ For where there is jealousy and ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, without hypocrisy. ¹⁸ But the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Chapter 4

¹ From where are quarrels and from where are disputes among you? Are they not from this, from your passions that wage war in your members? ² You desire and do not have. You kill and covet and are not able to obtain. You strive and fight. You do not have because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, in order that you may spend it in your passions. ⁴ You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility against God? Therefore whoever desires to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, “He desires to envy the Spirit who lives in us”? ⁶ But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” ⁷ Therefore submit to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve and mourn and weep! Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into gloom. ¹⁰ Be humbled before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

¹¹ Do not speak against one another, brothers. The one 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 is the one who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you, who judges your neighbor?

¹³ Come now, you who are saying, “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 the nature of tomorrow, what will your life be like? For you are a vapor that appears for a little while and then disappears. ¹⁵ Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, then we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you are boasting in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ Therefore to him who has known to do good but does not do it, to him it is sin.

Chapter 5

¹ Come now, you who are rich, weep, wailing because of your coming miseries. ² Your riches have rotted, and your clothes have become moth-eaten. ³ Your gold and your silver have become tarnished and their rust will be for a testimony against you, and will consume your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days. ⁴ Behold, the wages of the laborers who harvested your fields, which has been withheld, cries out from you, and the cries of the harvesters have entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts. ⁵ You have lived in luxury on the earth and indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned and killed the righteous person. He does not resist you.

⁷ Therefore be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer awaits the valuable fruit of the earth, patiently waiting for it, until it receives the early and late rains. ⁸ You also be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the coming of the Lord is near. ⁹ Do not complain, brothers, against one another, so that you may be not judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. ¹⁰ Take an example, brothers, of the suffering and the patience of the prophets, those who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹ Behold, we regard those who endured as blessed. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you know the purpose of the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

¹² But above all, my brothers, do not swear, neither by heaven nor by the earth, nor by any other oath. Instead, let your “Yes” be “Yes” and “No” be “No,” so that you may not fall under judgment.

¹³ Is anyone among you suffering hardship? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. ¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let him summon the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, after they have anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer of faith will heal the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he may have committed sins, he will forgive him. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for each other, so that you may be healed. The working prayer of a righteous person is very strong. ¹⁷ Elijah was a man of the same nature to us, and he prayed a prayer for it not to rain, and it did not rain in the land for three years and six months. ¹⁸ And Elijah prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

¹⁹ My brothers, if anyone among you may have been led astray from the truth, and someone turns him back, ²⁰ know that the one who turns back a sinner from his wandering way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.