1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.
2Consider it all joy, my brothers, whenever you fall into various trials,
3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4And let endurance have its complete work, so that you may be complete and whole, lacking in nothing.
5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask from God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6But let him ask in faith, doubting nothing; for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.
7For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
8he is a double-souled man, unstable in all his ways.
9Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,
10but the rich man in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.
11For the sun rose with its scorching heat and withered the grass, and its flower fell off, and the beauty of its appearance perished; so also the rich man will wither away in the midst of his pursuits.
12Blessed is the man who endures trial, because, having become approved, he will receive the crown of life, which he promised to those who love him.
13Let no one being tempted say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.
14But each one is tempted by his own desire, being dragged away and enticed;
15then desire, having conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.
16Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.
17Every good gift and every perfect present is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
18By his will he brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
19Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;
20for the anger of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.
21Therefore, having put away all filthiness and abundance of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this one is like a man observing the face of his birth in a mirror;
24for he observed himself and has gone away, and immediately forgot what sort of person he was.
25But the one who has looked intently into the perfect law of freedom and has continued in it, having become not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work — this one will be blessed in his doing.
26If anyone thinks himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his heart, this one’s religion is worthless.
27Religion pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
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