< James 1 >
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are in the dispersion: Health.
2 My brethren, count it all joy, when you fall into diverse trials;
3 knowing that the proof of your faith works out patience.
4 Let patience, therefore, have a perfect effect, that you may be perfect and complete, deficient in nothing.
5 If any of you be deficient in wisdom, let him ask it of God: who gives to all men liberally, and upbraids not, and it shall be given to him.
6 But let him ask in faith, being not at all irresolute: for he who is irresolute, is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.
7 Now let not that man think, that he shall receive anything from the Lord.
8 A man of two minds, is unstable in all his ways.
9 Moreover, let the brother of humble condition glory in his exaltation,
10 and the rich in his humiliation; for as a garden flower he shall pass away.--
11 For the sun rises with a burning heat, and withers the herb, and its flower falls down, and the beauty of its appearance perishes: so also shall the rich man fade in his ways.
12 Blessed is the man who sustains trial, for becoming an approved person, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them who love him.
13 Let no one who is tempted say, Certainly I am tempted by God: for God is incapable of being tempted by evil things, and he tempts no one.
14 But every one is tempted, when he is drawn away, and enticed by his own lust:
15 then lust having conceived, brings forth sin, and sin, being perfected, brings forth death.
16 Be not deceived, my beloved brethren;
17 every good gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, descended from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, nor shadow of turning.
18 Of his own will, he begot us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of fruits 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 works not out the righteousness of God.
21 Wherefore, putting away all filthiness, and overflowing of maliciousness, embrace with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 And be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves by false reasoning.
23 For if any one be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man who views his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he who looks at himself and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.
25 But he who looks narrowly into the perfect law of liberty, and perseveres, not becoming a forgetful hearer, but a doer of its work, shall, in so doing, be happy.
26 If any one among you think to be religious, who bridles not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, the religion of this person is vain.
27 Pure religion, and undefiled, with God, even the Father, is this: To take care of orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep one's self unspotted from the world.
