1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion: greetings.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into trials of every sort,
3 knowing that the proving of your faith works out endurance.
4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be perfect and entire, with nothing missing.
5 If any of you is lacking in wisdom, let him ask it of God, who gives to all freely and without reproach, and it will be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, not wavering at all; for whoever wavers resembles a surge of the sea, driven by the wind and thrown about.
7 That man should not think he will receive anything at all from the Lord—
8 a double-souled man, unsettled in all his ways.
9 Let the brother of low degree boast in his exaltation,
10 and the rich one in his humbling, because like a flower of the field he will pass away.
11 For the sun rises with its burning heat and parches the grass; its flower drops, and the grace of its look is lost. So too will the rich man fade in the midst of his pursuits.
12 Blessed is the man who endures trial; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him.
13 Let no one who is tempted say, "My temptation comes from God." For God is not open to temptation by evil, and he tempts no one himself.
14 But each one is tempted by his own desire, which draws him off and baits him.
15 Desire then conceives and bears sin; and sin, when it has run its full course, brings forth death.
16 Do not be led astray, my beloved brothers.
17 Every good giving and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow due to turning.
18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
19 So, my beloved brothers, let every man be fast to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;
20 for a man's wrath does not accomplish the righteousness of God.
21 Strip off, then, all filthiness and overflow of evil, and in meekness accept the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 Be doers of the word, and not hearers only who mislead themselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who studies his natural face in a mirror:
24 he studies himself and goes his way, and straightaway he has forgotten what sort of man he was.
25 But the one who has looked closely into the perfect law of liberty and has remained in it, becoming no forgetful hearer but a doer of work, that one will be blessed in his doing.
26 If anyone among you supposes he is religious, yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, that man's religion is empty.
27 Religion pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted by the world.