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

² My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into different kinds of temptations,

³ knowing that the trying of your faith works patience.

⁴ But let patience have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing.

⁵ But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and with no reproach, and it shall 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 the wind and tossed.

⁷ For do not let that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord;

⁸ he is a double-minded man, not dependable in all his ways.

⁹ But let the humble brother rejoice in his exaltation;

¹⁰ and the rich one rejoice in his humiliation, because he shall pass away as the flower of the grass.

¹¹ For the sun rose with the hot wind and dried up the grass, and its flower fell out, and the beauty of its appearance perished; so also the rich one will fade away in his ways.

¹² Blessed is the man who endures temptation, because having been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

¹³ Let no one being tempted say, I am tempted from God. For God is not tempted by evils, and He tempts no one.

¹⁴ But each one is tempted by his lusts, being drawn away and seduced by them.

¹⁵ Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin. And sin, when it is fully formed, brings forth death.

¹⁶ Do not err, my beloved brothers.

¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning.

¹⁸ Of His own will He brought us forth with the Word of truth, for us to be a certain firstfruit 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 work out the righteousness of God.

²¹ Therefore putting aside all filthiness and overflowing of evil, receive in meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls.

²² But become doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man studying his natural face in a mirror.

²⁴ For he studied himself and went his way, and immediately he forgot what he was like.

²⁵ But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, he is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This one shall be blessed in his doing.

²⁶ If anyone thinks to be religious among you, yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is vain.

²⁷ Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their afflictions, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.