¹ James, a bondman of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion, greeting.

² Consider it all joy, my brothers, when ye encounter various trials,

³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

⁴ And let perseverance have a perfect work, so that ye may be perfect and complete, falling short in nothing.

⁵ And if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask from God who gives to all generously and not reproaching, and it will be given to him.

⁶ But let him ask in faith, doubting nothing, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by wind and tossed about.

⁷ For that man should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord,

⁸ a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

⁹ Now let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,

¹⁰ but the rich in his lowliness, because as a flower of grass he will pass away.

¹¹ For the sun rose up with the burning heat, and withered the grass. And the flower of it fell, and the beauty of its appearance perished. So also the rich man will fade away among his pursuits.

¹² Blessed is a man who endures temptation, because, having become 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 is without temptation of evils, and he himself tempts no man.

¹⁴ But each man is tempted by his own lust, being drawn away and enticed.

¹⁵ Then the lust having conceived, it gives birth to sin, and after being complete the sin brings forth death.

¹⁶ Be not led astray, my beloved brothers.

¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect endowment is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation nor shadow of turning.

¹⁸ Having deliberated, he begot us by the word of truth for us to be a certain first fruit of his creatures.

¹⁹ Therefore, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

²⁰ For the wrath of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.

²¹ Therefore having put off all filthiness and profusion of evil, receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

²² But become ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

²³ Because if any man is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this resembles a man observing his natural face in a mirror.

²⁴ For he observes himself, and goes away, and straightaway forgets what kind of man he was.

²⁵ But he who stooped to look into the perfect law, the one of liberty, and who remained, this man, who did not become a forgetful hearer but a doer of work, this man will be blessed in his doing.

²⁶ If any man among you seems to be religious, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his heart, this man's religion is futile.

²⁷ Pure religion and undefiled from God and the Father is this, to go help the orphaned and the widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.