James 1

Greeting

¹James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings.²

Trials and Maturity

³Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials,⁴⁵because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.⁶⁷And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.⁸

⁹Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God — who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly — and it will be given to him.¹⁰¹¹But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.¹²¹³That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord,¹⁴¹⁵being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.¹⁶

¹⁷Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation,¹⁸¹⁹but let the rich boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field.²⁰²¹For the sun rises and, together with the scorching wind, dries up the grass; its flower falls off, and its beautiful appearance perishes. In the same way, the rich person will wither away while pursuing his activities.²²

²³Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.²⁴

²⁵No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone.²⁶²⁷But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.²⁸²⁹Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.³⁰

³¹Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.³²³³Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.³⁴³⁵By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.³⁶

Hearing and Doing the Word

³⁷My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,³⁸³⁹for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.⁴⁰⁴¹Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.⁴²

⁴³But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.⁴⁴⁴⁵Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror.⁴⁶⁴⁷For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.⁴⁸⁴⁹But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works — this person will be blessed in what he does.⁵⁰

⁵¹If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself.⁵²⁵³Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.⁵⁴