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[1] James a servant of God, and of the Lord JESUS CHRIST, to the twelve Tribes, which are scattered abroad, salutation.
[2] My brethren, count it exceeding joy, when ye fall into diverse temptations,
[3] Knowing that the trying of your faith bringeth forth patience,
[4] And let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing.
[5] If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, which giveth to all men liberally, and reproacheth no man, and it shall be given him.
[6] But let him ask in faith, and waver not: for he that wavereth, is like a wave of the sea, tossed of the wind, and carried away.
[7] Neither let that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
[8] A wavering minded man is unstable in all his ways.
[9] Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
[10] Again he that is rich, in that he is made low: for as the flower of the grass, shall he vanish away.
[11] For as when the sun riseth with heat, then the grass withereth, and his flower falleth away, and the beauty of the fashion of it perisheth: even so shall the rich man fade away in all his ways.
[12] Blessed is the man, that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
[13] Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.
[14] But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own concupiscence, and is enticed.
[15] Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
[16] Err not, my dear brethren.
[17] Every good giving, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadowing by turning.
[18] Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be as the first fruits of his creatures.
[19] Wherefore my dear brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath.
[20] For the wrath of man doth not accomplish the righteousness of God.
[21] Wherefore lay apart all filthiness, and superfluity of maliciousness, and receive with meekness the word that is grafted in you, which is able to save your souls.
[22] And be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
[23] For if any hear the word, and do it not, he is like unto a man, that beholdeth his natural face in a glass.
[24] For when he hath considered himself, he goeth his way, and forgetteth immediately what manner of one he was.
[25] But who so looketh in the perfect Law of liberty, and continueth therein, he not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, shall be blessed in his deed.
[26] If any man among you seemeth religious, and restraineth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
[27] Pure religion and undefiled before God, even the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless, and widows in their adversity, and to keep himself unspotted of the world.
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