James 1

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

My brothers and sisters, count it all joy when you encounter trials of various kinds,

knowing that the testing of your trust produces endurance.

Now let endurance have its full effect, so that you become fully mature and whole, lacking in nothing.

But if any of you lacks wisdom, ask God for it, who gives to everyone generously and without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

But he must ask in trust, without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed around by the wind.

Indeed, that person must not expect that he will receive anything from the Lord.

A double-minded person is unstable in all his ways.

Now the brother in lowly circumstances should boast in his high position,

and the rich brother in that he is brought low, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.

For the sun rises with a burning heat and withers the grass, and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So also the rich person will fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

Blessed is the person who endures through trials, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God promised to those who love him.

No one should say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone.

But each person is tempted by his own desire, being dragged away and enticed by it.

Then the desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and the sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters:

all giving that is good and every gift that is perfect is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

By his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of what he has created.

Know this, my beloved brothers and sisters: every person is to be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger,

for human anger does not produce the righteousness of God.

Therefore, putting away all moral filth and wickedness (which is so prevalent), receive with meekness the word that has been planted in you that is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a person who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror,

for he looks intently at himself and goes away, and immediately forgets what he looked like.

But the one who looks carefully into the perfect law—the law of freedom—and continues in it, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, this person will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone thinks he is religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, his religion is worthless.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to care for the orphans and widows in their hardship, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.