1

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are of the dispersion, greeting.

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations,

3 knowing that the proving of your faith works patience.

4 And let patience have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing.

5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all liberally and without reproaching, and it shall be given him.

6 But let him ask in faith, never doubting. For he that doubts is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.

7 Do not let that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord.

8 He is a doubleminded man, unstable in all his ways.

9 Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation,

10 but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away.

11 For the sun rises with the scorching wind and withers the grass, and the flower of it falls and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So also shall the rich man fade away in his business. Temptation and God's Word

12 Blessed is the man that endures temptation. For when he has been approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him.

13 Let no one say when he is tempted: I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and He tempts no one.

14 But each man is tempted, when he is dragged away by his own lust and enticed.

15 Then the lust, when it has conceived, carries sin; and the sin, when it is fully grown, brings death.

16 Be not deceived, my beloved brothers.

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor shifting shadow.

18 Of His own will He gave us birth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creations.

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

20 For the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God.

21 Wherefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. Self-examination

22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding your selves.

23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like to a man seeing his natural face in a mirror;

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

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

26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious while he does not hold his tongue but rather just deceives his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: To visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

2

1 My brothers, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.

2 For if there come into your synagogue a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, and there come in also a poor man in vile clothing;

3 and you have regard to him that wears the fine clothing, and say: Sit here in a good place; and you say to the poor man: Stand there, or, Sit under my footstool;

4 do you not make distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

5 Listen, my beloved brothers. Did not God choose those that are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those that love him?

6 But you have dishonoured the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you, and themselves drag you before the courts?

7 Do not they blaspheme the honourable Name by which you are called?

8 However, if you fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture: You shall love your neighbour as yourself, you do well!

9 But if you show favouritism, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.

10 For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of breaking all of it.

11 For He that said: Do not commit adultery, also said: Do not kill. So if you do not commit adultery but if you kill, you have become a transgressor of the law.

12 So speak and act as men that are to be judged by a law of liberty.

13 For judgment is without mercy to whomsoever has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

14 My brothers, what good is it if a man claims to have faith but has no works? Can that faith save him?

15 If a brother or sister is naked 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 the things needful to the body- what does it profit?

17 Even so, faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself.

18 Yes, a man will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works and I, by my works, will show you my faith.

19 You believe that God is one! You do well. The demons also believe and shudder.

20 But, O vain man, do you need evidence that faith without works is useless?

21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar?

22 You saw that faith worked together with his works, and so by works was faith perfected.

23 And the scripture was fulfilled which said: And Abraham believed God and it was accredited to him as righteousness; and he was called the friend of God.

24 You see that by works a man is justified and not only by faith.

25 And in like manner was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works, in that she received the messengers and sent them out another way?

26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

3

1 Be not many teachers. My brothers, realize that we teachers shall receive heavier judgment.

2 For in many things we all make others stumble. If any does not cause stumbling by his words, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.

3 Now if we put the horses' bridles into their mouths that they may obey us, we turn about their whole body also.

4 Behold the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, they are all the same turned about by a very small rudder, wherever the impulse of the steersman wills.

5 So the tongue also is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how much wood is kindled by how small a fire!

6 And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body and sets on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna.

7 For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.

8 But the tongue no one can tame; it is a restless evil, it is full of deadly poison.

9 With this we bless the Lord and the Father, and with this we curse men, even though they are made after the likeness of God.

10 Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

11 Does the fountain send forth from the same spout both fresh and bitter water?

12 My brothers, can a fig tree yield olives or a vine figs? Neither can salt water yield fresh.

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show his works in his good life, in meekness of wisdom.

14 But if you have bitter jealousy and rivalry in your heart, do not boast about it and deny 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 division are, there is confusion and every vile deed.

17 But the wisdom that is from above is most importantly pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy.

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

4

1 What causes the wars and fights among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasures that war within you?

2 You want what you don't have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

3 You ask and do not receive because you ask with the wrong motivation, you want only what will give you pleasure.

4 You adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever would be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think that the scripture says in vain: The Spirit that dwells in us yearns jealously.

6 But He gives more grace. Wherefore the scripture said: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

7 Therefore, be subject to God and resist the Devil, and the Devil will flee from you.

8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you doubleminded sinners, and purify your hearts.

9 Lament and mourn and weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall exalt you.

11 Brothers, do not speak evil against each other. He that 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 One only is the lawgiver and judge. He who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge your neighbour?

13 Come now, you that say that today or the next day we will go into this city and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.

14 Whereas you do not know what shall be the next day. What is your life? For you are as a vapour that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

15 For you ought to say: If the Lord wills it, we shall both live and do this or that.

16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

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

5

1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the 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, and their rust shall be a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days.

4 Indeed, the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts only for a day of slaughter.

6 You have condemned, you have killed the righteous, even though he does not oppose you.

7 Therefore brothers, be patient until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receive the early and latter rain.

8 Be you also patient. Establish your hearts. For the coming of the Lord is at hand!

9 Brothers, do not complain about each other, so that you are not judged. Behold! The judge stands at the door!

10 Brothers, take for an example the suffering and patience of the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

11 Behold, we call them blessed that endured. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the result that the Lord intended, how the Lord is full of pity and is merciful.

12 But above all things, my brothers, do not make oaths. Neither by the heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath; but let your yes, mean yes, and your no, mean no, so that 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 for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

15 And the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he has committed sins, it shall be forgiven him.

16 Therefore, confess your sins to each other, and pray for each other, so that you may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man avails much in its working.

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

18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit.

19 My brothers. If anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back:

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