1 | James , a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ , to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad , greeting . |
2 | My brethren , count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations ; |
3 | Knowing [this], that the trying of your faith worketh patience . |
4 | But let patience have [her] perfect work , that ye may be perfect and entire , wanting nothing . |
5 | If any of you lack wisdom , let him ask of God , that giveth to all [men] liberally , and upbraideth not ; and it shall be given him . |
6 | But let him ask in faith , nothing wavering . For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed . |
7 | For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord . |
8 | A double minded man [is] unstable in all his ways . |
9 | Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted : |
10 | But the rich , in that he is made low : because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away . |
11 | For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat , but it withereth the grass , and the flower thereof falleth , and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth : so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways . |
12 | Blessed [is] the man that endureth temptation : for when he is tried , he shall receive the crown of life , which the Lord hath promised to them that love him . |
13 | Let no man say when he is tempted , I am tempted of God : for God cannot be tempted with evil , neither tempteth he any man : |
14 | But every man is tempted , when he is drawn away of his own lust , and enticed . |
15 | Then when lust hath conceived , it bringeth forth sin : and sin , when it is finished , bringeth forth death . |
16 | Do not err , my beloved brethren . |
17 | Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above , and cometh down from the Father of lights , with whom is no variableness , neither shadow of turning . |
18 | Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth , that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures . |
19 | Wherefore , my beloved brethren , let every man be swift to hear , slow to speak , slow to wrath : |
20 | For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God . |
21 | Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness , and receive with meekness the engrafted word , which is able to save your souls . |
22 | But be ye doers of the word , and not hearers only , deceiving your own selves . |
23 | For if any be a hearer of the word , and not a doer , he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass : |
24 | For he beholdeth himself , and goeth his way , and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was . |
25 | But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty , and continueth [therein], he being not a forgetful hearer , but a doer of the work , this man shall be blessed in his deed . |
26 | If any man among you seem to be religious , and bridleth not his tongue , but deceiveth his own heart , this man's religion [is] vain . |
27 | Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this , To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction , [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world . |