James
Chapter One
What James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, wrote to
which is worth remembering.
count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of
your faith produces patience. Let patience fully develop within you,
that you may be more mature and complete, lacking nothing. If you lack wisdom,
ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and He will give it to you.
ask in faith, being convinced He'll answer, because
those who doubt are like waves of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For
let not any doubter suppose they will receive anything from the Lord; being
double-minded and unstable.
If you are lowly,
glory in your exaltation, but if you are rich, in your humiliation, because like
any
flower, you too,
will pass away.
For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it
withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So
the rich also will fade away in his pursuits. Blessed are you,
when you endure temptation; for when you have been approved, you will receive the crown
of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
Don't say when you are tempted,
"I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does God tempt anyone. You are tempted,
when you are drawn away by your own desires and enticed. Then, when your desire
has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings
forth death.
Do not be deceived, beloved
every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom
there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Of His own will He brought you forth,
by the word of truth, that you might be a kind of firstfruit of His creatures. So then beloved
be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for your wrath does not produce the
righteousness of God.
Therefore lay aside all your filthiness and overflow of wickedness,
and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your soul.
Be a doer of the word,
and not one of those a hearers who
only deceive themselves. Anyone who is a hearer of the word and not a doer, is
like a someone looking at their own face in a mirror; who as soon as they walk
away immediately forgets what they look like.
But when you look into the perfect law of liberty and continue in it,
and are not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, you will be
blessed in what you do.
If you think you are religious,
and do not bridle your tongue but deceive your own heart, your religion is worthless. Pure and
undefiled religion before God the Father is this: visit orphans and widows in
their trouble, and keep yourself,
unspotted from the world.
