James

New Testament · 5 chapters · 108 verses.

Chapter 1

1:1James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus the Anointed One, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion: Greetings!
1:2Count it all joy, my brothers, whenever you fall into various trials,
1:3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
1:4And let endurance have its complete work, that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
1:5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all and does not reproach, and it will be given to him.
1:6But let him ask in faith, doubting nothing, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
1:7For let that man not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord—
1:8a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
1:9Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation,
1:10and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.
1:11For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So also the rich man will fade away in his pursuits.
1:12Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has been approved, he will receive the garland of life, which the Lord promised to those who love Him.
1:13Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself tempts no one.
1:14But each one is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own desire.
1:15Then desire, having conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has been brought to completion, brings forth death.
1:16Do not be led astray, my beloved brothers.
1:17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
1:18By His own will He begot us through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first portion of His creatures.
1:19So then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger,
1:20for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
1:21Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and abundance of evil, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
1:22And become doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
1:23For 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;
1:24for he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
1:25But the one who looks into the perfect law—the law of liberty—and continues in it, not becoming a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
1:26If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious, yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.
1:27Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Chapter 2

2:1My brothers, do not hold the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus the Anointed One with partiality.
2:2For if a man wearing a gold ring and splendid clothing enters your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also enters,
2:3and you pay attention to the one wearing the splendid clothing and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here beneath my footstool,”
2:4have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
2:5Listen, my beloved brothers: did God not choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom He promised to those who love Him?
2:6But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you before judgment seats?
2:7Do they not blaspheme the good Name called upon you?
2:8If indeed you fulfill the royal law according to the Writing, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well.
2:9But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the Law as transgressors.
2:10For whoever keeps the whole Law yet stumbles in one point has become guilty of all.
2:11For He who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the Law.
2:12So speak and so act as those about to be judged by the law of liberty.
2:13For judgment without mercy will be shown to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
2:14What profit is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
2:15If a brother or sister is naked and lacking daily food,
2:16and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” but does not give them what the body needs, what profit is it?
2:17So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
2:18But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
2:19You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe—and shudder!
2:20But are you willing to know, empty man, that faith apart from works is dead?
2:21Was not Abraham our father declared righteous by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
2:22You see that faith was working together with his works, and by the works faith was brought to completion.
2:23And the Writing was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called “Friend of God.”
2:24You see, then, that a man is declared righteous by works, and not by faith only.
2:25And likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also declared righteous by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
2:26For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Chapter 3

3:1Let not many of you become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment.
3:2For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a mature man, able also to bridle the whole body.
3:3Behold, we put bits into horses’ mouths so that they obey us, and we turn their whole body.
3:4Behold also the ships: though they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the one steering wills.
3:5So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts great things. Behold how great a forest a little fire kindles!
3:6And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, defiling the whole body, setting on fire the course of life, and itself being set on fire by the Valley of Hinnom.
3:7For every kind of beast and bird, creeping thing and sea creature, is tamed and has been tamed by human nature,
3:8but no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
3:9With it we bless God the Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God.
3:10Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
3:11Does a spring pour forth both sweet and bitter water from the same opening?
3:12Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
3:13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct his works in the meekness of wisdom.
3:14But if you have bitter jealousy and rivalry in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.
3:15This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
3:16For where jealousy and rivalry are, there are disorder and every evil practice.
3:17But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, and sincere.
3:18And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Chapter 4

4:1From where come wars and fights among you? Do they not come from your pleasures that wage war in your members?
4:2You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and wage war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
4:3You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
4:4Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, then, intends to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
4:5Or do you think that the Writing speaks in vain? “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously.”
4:6But He gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
4:7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.
4:8Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
4:9Be afflicted, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
4:10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.
4:11Do not speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother speaks against the Law and judges the Law. But if you judge the Law, you are not a doer of the Law but a judge.
4:12One is the Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you who judge another?
4:13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, trade, and make a profit,”
4:14though you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
4:15Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
4:16But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
4:17Therefore, to the one who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Chapter 5

5:1Come now, you rich: weep and howl over the miseries coming upon you.
5:2Your riches have rotted, and your garments have become moth-eaten.
5:3Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days!
5:4Behold, the wages of the workers who harvested your fields, fraudulently withheld by you, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have entered the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
5:5You have lived in luxury on the earth and indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
5:6You have condemned and murdered the righteous man; he does not resist you.
5:7Be patient, then, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient for it until it receives the early and latter rain.
5:8You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord has drawn near.
5:9Do not grumble against one another, brothers, that you may not be condemned. Behold, the Judge stands at the door.
5:10My brothers, take as an example of suffering evil and of patience the prophets who spoke in the Name of the Lord.
5:11Behold, we call those who endure blessed. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the Lord’s outcome—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
5:12But above all, my brothers, do not swear, neither by Heaven nor by the earth nor by any other oath. But let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no, that you may not fall under judgment.
5:13Is anyone among you suffering evil? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
5:14Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord.
5:15And the prayer of faith will save the sick one, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.
5:16Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man is very powerful.
5:17Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
5:18And he prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the land produced its fruit.
5:19Brothers, if anyone among you strays from the truth and someone turns him back,
5:20let him know that the one who turns a sinner back from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.