Introduction

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion: greetings.

Trials and Perseverance

2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 And let endurance have its complete work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But let him ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Poverty and Riches

9 Let the lowly brother rejoice in his exaltation,
10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like the flower of the grass he will pass away.
11 For the sun rises with a burning heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes; so also will the rich fade away in his pursuits.

Enduring Temptation

12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.
14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed.
15 Then lust, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

Hearing and Doing the Word

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
19 Know this, my beloved brethren: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;
20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
21 Therefore, putting away all filthiness and abundance of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25 But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in his doing.

True Religion

26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this one’s religion is worthless.
27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.