THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. 2 Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into various temptations; 3 knowing that the trying of your faith worketh endurance. 4 But let endurance have a perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting in nothing. 5 But if any one of you is wanting in wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting; for he that doubteth is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord, 8 a double-minded man as he is, unstable in all his ways. 9 Let the brother of low degree glory in that he is exalted; 10 but the rich, in that he is made low; because as the flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rose with its burning heat, and withered the grass, and its flower fell off, and the beauty of its appearance perished; so also will the rich man fade away in his ways. 12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is approved, he will receive the crown of life, which He promised to them that love him. 13 Let no one when he is tempted, say, I am tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he tempteth no one. 14 But each one is tempted when by his own lust he is led away and enticed; 15 then lust, having conceived, bringeth forth sin, and sin, when completed, bringeth forth death. 16 Do not err, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the lights, with whom is no change, nor shadow from turning. 18 Of his own will he begot us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-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 worketh not the righteousness of God. 21 Wherefore put off all filthiness, and excess of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if any one is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass; 24 for he beholds himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what manner of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty, and remains there, being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in his deed. 26 If any one thinks that he is religious, and bridles not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God, the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep one's self unspotted from the world.