The In-Dept Study of the Bible
James 01
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord
Jesus Christ,† to the twelve tribes whichare
in the Dispersion: Greetings.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers,‡ when you
fall into various temptations,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith
produces endurance.
4 Let endurance have its perfect work,
that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him
ask of God, who gives to all liberally and
without reproach, and it will be
given to him.
6 But 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.
7 For that man shouldn’t think that he
will receive anything from the Lord.
8 He is adouble-mindedman, unstable in
all his ways.
9 Let the brother in humble circumstances
glory in his high position;
10 and the rich, in that he is made
humble, because like the flower
in the grass, he will pass away.
11 For 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 the rich man will also fade
away in his pursuits.
12 Blessed is a person 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.
13 Let no man say when he is tempted,
“I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be
tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no
one.
14 But each one is tempted when he is
drawn away by his own lust and enticed.
15 Then the lust, when it has conceived,
bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown,
produces death.
16 Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers.
17 Every goodgift andeveryperfect giftis
from above, coming down from the Father
of lights, with whom can be no variation
nor turning shadow.
18 Of his own will he gave birth to us by
the word of truth, that we should be a kind
of first fruits of his creatures.
19 So, then, my beloved brothers, let every
man be swift to hear, slow to speak,
and slow to anger;
20 for the anger of man doesn’t produce
the righteousness of God.
21 Therefore, putting away all filthiness
and overflowing of wickedness, receive
with humility the implanted word, which
is able to save your souls.§
22 But be doers of the word, and not only
hearers, deluding your own selves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word
and not a doer, he is like a man looking at
his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he sees himself, and goes away,
and immediately forgets what kind of man
he was.
25 But he who looks into the perfect 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.
26 If 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.
27 Pure religionand 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.