James
Summary
James, the brother of Jesus, addresses the "twelve tribes scattered abroad," providing a series of practical tests for a living faith. He encourages believers to "count it all joy" when falling into various trials, as the testing of faith produces patience and spiritual maturity. James emphasizes that wisdom should be sought from God in faith, without wavering, and warns against the deceitfulness of wealth. He clarifies that God does not tempt anyone with evil and that every "good and perfect gift" comes from the Father above. Crucially, he exhorts his readers to be "doers of the word, and not hearers only," defining pure religion as caring for orphans and widows and remaining unspotted by the world.
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various trials;
Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience.
But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all people liberally, and without reproach; and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he who wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
For let not that person think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
A double minded person is unstable in all his ways.
Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass, and the flower thereof falls, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes: so also shall the rich person fade away in his ways.
Blessed is the person who endures trial: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted of God": for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts He any person:
But every person is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.
Do not err, my beloved brothers.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Of His own will He brought us forth with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
Wherefore, my beloved brothers, let every person be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
For the wrath of people works not the righteousness of God.
Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with gentleness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a person beholding his natural face in a glass:
For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of person he was.
But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this person shall be blessed in his deed.
If any person among you seems to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this person’s religion is vain.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.