¹ JAMES, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are dispersed, greeting.

² My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into various trials;

³ knowing that the proof of your faith produceth patience.

⁴ But let patience have its work perfected, that ye may be perfect and complete, deficient in nothing.

⁵ But if any man of you be deficient in wisdom, let him ask it of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not and it shall be given him.

⁶ But let him ask in faith, harbouring no doubt: for he who is doubtful is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind, and in constant agitation.

⁷ For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing from the Lord.

⁸ A double-minded man is unsteady in all his ways.

⁹ Let the brother low in station rejoice in his elevation:

¹⁰ but the rich, in his abasement: for as the flower of grass he shall pass away.

¹¹ For the sun arose with fervour, and burnt up the grass, and the flower of it fell off, and the beauty of its appearance was lost: just so the rich man in his course of life shall wither away.

¹² Blessed is the man who patiently supports temptation: for when he is proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to those who love him.

¹³ Let no man under temptation say, I am tempted of God: for God is incapable of temptation from evils, and he tempteth no man:

¹⁴ but every person is tempted, when by his own peculiar passion he is born away, and ensnared.

¹⁵ Then passion impregnated, bringeth forth sin, and sin reaching its consummation, bringeth forth death.

¹⁶ Be not deceived, my beloved brethren.

¹⁷ Every good gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, descending from the father of illuminations, with whom there is no variableness, nor shadow of change.

¹⁸ Of his own choice he produced us by the word of truth, that we might be a sort of first fruit 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 laying aside all vicious pollution, and the abundance of iniquity, receive with meekness the ingrafted word, which hath power to save your souls.

²² But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves by false reasoning.

²³ For if any man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man that looks at his natural face in a glass;

²⁴ for he beheld himself, and went away, and immediately forgot what sort of person he was.

²⁵ But he that looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and perseveres, this man not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, he shall be blessed in his practice.

²⁶ If any man thinks he is a religious character among you, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

²⁷ Pure religion and undefiled with God even the Father is this, To pay diligent attention to the orphans and widows in their affliction, and to preserve himself spotless from the world.