1

1 This letter is from James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Greetings to the twelve tribes that are scattered.

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials.

3 Know that the testing of your faith produces patience endurance .

4 Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be mature, complete, and lacking in nothing.

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

6 However he must ask in faith, not doubting: for he who doubts is like a surging wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.

7 Do not let that man think that he will receive anything from God.

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

9 Let the brother of humble circumstances glory in his high position exaltation .

10 But the rich must be glad when God humbles them. This is because they will wither like wildflowers and pass away.

11 The sun rises with scorching heat and withers the grass. The flower falls off and its beauty perishes. So also the rich man will fade away in his pursuits.

12 The man who endures under trial is blessed. For when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life that God promised to those who love him.

13 Let no man say when he is tempted: "God tempts me." God cannot be tempted with evil, and he tempts entices tests trys no one.

14 Each man is tempted when he is drawn away by his evil desire lust . He is enticed allured .

15 Then evil desires, when conceived, give birth to sin: and the sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. It comes down from the Father of lights truth and spiritual purity , with whom there is no variation. He does not change like shifting shadows.

18 Using his own will, he gave us birth through the word of truth. This way we would be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

19 You know this, my beloved brothers. But let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

20 The anger of man does not promote the righteousness of God.

21 Therefore get rid of all filthiness and wickedness. Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save you.

22 Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, who deceive themselves.

23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror.

24 He sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what manner of man he was.

25 But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so continues, being not a hearer who forgets but a doer who works, this man will be blessed in what he does.

26 If any man thinks he is religious, while he does not control his tongue but deceives his heart, this man's religion is vain worthless useless .

27 Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for the fatherless persons and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself without spot from the world.

2

1 My brothers, keep the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. Do not favor one person over the other.

2 A man wearing a gold ring and fine clothes and a poor man in shabby clothes comes into your synagogue.

3 You pay special attention to the one wearing the fine clothes, and say: "Sit here in a good place." Then you say to the poor man: "Stand there," or "Sit under my footstool."

4 Do not make distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts.

5 Listen, my dearly beloved brothers! Did God choose poor people in the world to be rich in faith and to receive the kingdom he promised to those who love him?

6 You have dishonored the poor man. Do the rich oppress you, and personally drag you into court?

7 Do they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?

8 When you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well.

9 But when you show partiality you commit sin. The law then convicts you as transgressors.

10 Whoever obeys the whole law and yet stumbles in one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

11 For he who said: "Do not commit adultery," also said: "Do not murder" Greek: phoneuo: kill, slay, murder . Now if you do not commit adultery, but you commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

12 You should speak and act as men who are to be judged by a law of liberty.

13 For judgment is without mercy to him who shows no mercy. And mercy triumphs over judgment.

14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith but he does not have works? Can that faith save him?

15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and in lack of daily food,

16 and one of you says to them: "Go in peace, be warmed and filled;" and yet you do not give them food and clothing, what good is it?

17 Even so, faith without works is dead. It is alone and by itself!

18 A man will say: "You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works."

19 You believe that there is one God. You do well: the demons also believe, and shudder.

20 Are you willing to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is useless barren lifeless ?

21 Was Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?

22 You see that faith acted with his works, and works made faith perfect complete .

23 The scripture was fulfilled which says: "Abraham believed Jehovah and it was reckoned imputed considered credited to him for righteousness." He was called »Jehovah’s friend" (Genesis 15:6) ( Isaiah 41:8).

24 You see that a man is justified declared and pronounced righteous by works, and not by faith alone.

25 Rahab the harlot was justified by her works. When she received the messengers she sent them out another way.

26 Just as the body without the spirit is dead; even so faith without works is dead.

3

1 Many of you should not be teachers, my brothers. You know that we will receive a heavier stricter judgment.

2 We all stumble in many things. If any do not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able to restrain control the whole body.

3 We put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us. We guide their whole bodies.

4 Look at ships. They are large and are driven by rough winds. Yet a very small rudder can control them, wherever the captain wills.

5 The tongue also is a little member. It boasts great things. Consider how great a forest fire a small fire kindles!

6 The tongue is like fire, the place of iniquity among our members. It defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of our life. It is set ablaze like the ever-burning fires in the Valley of Hinnom Greek: Gehenna: symbolic of total destruction .

7 Every kind of beast and bird, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind.

8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil. It is full of deadly poison.

9 We bless Jehovah, the Father, with it. (Psalm 34:1) Then we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God.

10 Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth! My brothers, these things should not be.

11 Does the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter?

12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine produce figs? Neither can salt water yield sweet.

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct that his works are from meekness because of wisdom.

14 If you have bitter jealousy envy and greedy ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and lie against the truth.

15 This wisdom is not a wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish.

16 For where jealousy and selfishness are, there is confusion and every evil deed.

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable yielding , full of mercy and good fruits, without discord partiality , without hypocrisy.

18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

4

1 What causes wars and fighting among you? Is the cause of fighting your sensual lusts for pleasure that battle within you?

2 You lust, and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain! You fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask.

3 You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly with bad motives that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4 Adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity hatred hostility toward God? Whoever would be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think the scripture speaks to no purpose? Does the attitude of the heart mental disposition that he induced to live in us cause us to envy?

6 But he gives more grace. The scripture said, "God resists the proud, but gives grace loving-kindness to the humble."

7 Be subject to God! Resist Satan the Devil and he will flee from you.

8 Draw close to God, and he will draw close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded uncertain doubter skeptic .

9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

10 Humble yourselves in the presence of God, and he will exalt you.

11 Brothers, do not speak against each other. He who speaks against a brother, or judges his brother, speaks against the law, and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12 Only one is the lawgiver and judge, even he who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you that you judge your neighbor?

13 Come now, you that say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and make profit."

14 You do not know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a vapor puff of air that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

15 You should say, "If God wills, we should both live, and do this or that."

16 You glory in your conceit. Such glory is evil.

17 He that knows to do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin.

5

1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you.

2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.

3 Your gold and your silver are rusted. Their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You stored up your treasure in the last days.

4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who harvested your fields, which are held back by you, cry out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of Jehovah of Hosts.

5 You lived in luxury on the earth, and take your pleasure; you nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.

6 You have condemned, and you have killed the righteous one. He does not resist you.

7 Be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receive the early and late rains.

8 You also be patient. Make your hearts firm, for the coming of the Lord is near.

9 Do not complain utter a deep sigh against one another, that you not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door.

10 Brothers, accept the example of suffering and patience by the prophets who spoke in the name of God.

11 As you know, those who have endured are called blessed. You have heard of the patience perseverance endurance of Job, and have seen the outcome Jehovah provided, how he was very tender with his affection and mercy. (Psalm 103:8)

12 Above all things, my brothers do not swear by heaven, or by earth, or by any other oath. Let your Yes be Yes and your No be No. That way you will not fall under judgment.

13 Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise.

14 Is any among you sick? Let him call the elders of the congregation. Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of God.

15 The prayer of faith will save the sick person. God will raise him up; and if he committed sins, it will be forgiven him.

16 Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man helps much.

17 Elijah was a man of like passions with us. He prayed fervently that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.

18 He prayed again; and the sky gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

19 My brothers, if any among you strays from the truth, and one brings him back,

20 let him know, that he who turns a sinner back from the error of his way will save a person from death, and cover a multitude of sins.