James' Letter (WEB)
The Letter from James
1:1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion:
Greetings. 1:2Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, 1:3Knowing
that the testing of your faith produces patience. 1:4Let patience have its perfect work, that you may
be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 1:5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God,
who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given him. 1:6But let him ask in faith,
without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.
1:7For let that man not think that he will receive anything from the Lord. 1:8He is a double-minded
man, unstable in all his ways. 1:9But let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high
position; 1:10and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will
pass away. 1:11For the sun arises with the scorching wind, and withers the grass, and the flower in it
falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in his
pursuits. 1:12Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will
receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him. 1:13Let no man say when
he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God can't be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts
no one. 1:14But each one is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. 1:15Then
the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.
1:16Don't be deceived, my beloved brothers. 1:17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow. 1:18Of
his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his
creatures.
1:19So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; 1:20for the anger of man doesn't produce the righteousness of God. 1:21Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 1:22But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. 1:23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a mirror; 1:24for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 1:25But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
1:26If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious, while he doesn't bridle his tongue, but
deceives his heart, this man's religion is worthless. 1:27Pure religion and undefiled before our God
and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself
unstained by the world.