| 1 | James, bondman of God and of [the] Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which [are] in the dispersion, greeting. |
| 2 | Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into various temptations, |
| 3 | knowing that the proving of your faith works endurance. |
| 4 | But let endurance have [its] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. |
| 5 | But if any one of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all freely and reproaches not, and it shall be given to him: |
| 6 | but let him ask in faith, nothing doubting. For he that doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed about; |
| 7 | for let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord; |
| 8 | [he is] a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. |
| 9 | But let the brother of low degree glory in his elevation, |
| 10 | and the rich in his humiliation, because as [the] grass's flower he will pass away. |
| 11 | For the sun has risen with its burning heat, and has withered the grass, and its flower has fallen, and the comeliness of its look has perished: thus the rich also shall wither in his goings. |
| 12 | Blessed [is the] man who endures temptation; for, having been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which He has promised to them that love him. |
| 13 | Let no man, being tempted, say, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted by evil things, and himself tempts no one. |
| 14 | But every one is tempted, drawn away, and enticed by his own lust; |
| 15 | then lust, having conceived, gives birth to sin; but sin fully completed brings forth death. |
| 16 | Do not err, my beloved brethren. |
| 17 | Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights, with whom is no variation nor shadow of turning. |
| 18 | According to his own will begat he us by the word of truth, that we should be a certain first-fruits of *his* creatures. |
| 19 | So that, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; |
| 20 | for man's wrath does not work God's righteousness. |
| 21 | Wherefore, laying aside all filthiness and abounding of wickedness, accept with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. |
| 22 | But be ye doers of [the] word and not hearers only, beguiling yourselves. |
| 23 | For if any man be a hearer of [the] word and not a doer, *he* is like to a man considering his natural face in a mirror: |
| 24 | for he has considered himself and is gone away, and straightway he has forgotten what he was like. |
| 25 | But *he* that fixes his view on [the] perfect law, that of liberty, and abides in [it], being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of [the] work, *he* shall be blessed in his doing. |
| 26 | If any one think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, this man's religion is vain. |
| 27 | Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep oneself unspotted from the world. |
