1 J ames, bondman of God and of Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which in the dispersion, greeting.

2 C ount it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into various temptations,

3 k nowing that the proving of your faith works endurance.

4 B ut let endurance have perfect work, that ye may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

5 B ut if any one of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all freely and reproaches not, and it shall be given to him:

6 b ut let him ask in faith, nothing doubting. For he that doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed about;

7 f or let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord;

8 a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

9 B ut let the brother of low degree glory in his elevation,

10 a nd the rich in his humiliation, because as grass's flower he will pass away.

11 F or the sun has risen with its burning heat, and has withered the grass, and its flower has fallen, and the comeliness of its look has perished: thus the rich also shall wither in his goings.

12 B lessed man who endures temptation; for, having been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which He has promised to them that love him.

13 L et no man, being tempted, say, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted by evil things, and himself tempts no one.

14 B ut every one is tempted, drawn away, and enticed by his own lust;

15 t hen lust, having conceived, gives birth to sin; but sin fully completed brings forth death.

16 D o not err, my beloved brethren.

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

18 A ccording to his own will begat he us by the word of truth, that we should be a certain first-fruits of his creatures.

19 S o that, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;

20 f or man's wrath does not work God's righteousness.

21 W herefore, laying aside all filthiness and abounding of wickedness, accept with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 B ut be ye doers of word and not hearers only, beguiling yourselves.

23 F or if any man be a hearer of word and not a doer, he is like to a man considering his natural face in a mirror:

24 f or he has considered himself and is gone away, and straightway he has forgotten what he was like.

25 B ut he that fixes his view on perfect law, that of liberty, and abides in, being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of work, he shall be blessed in his doing.

26 I f any one think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, this man's religion is vain.

27 P ure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep oneself unspotted from the world.