James 1–2

Chapter 1

James, the servant of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

²My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations:

³Knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience

⁴And patience hath a perfect work: that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing.

⁵But if any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all men abundantly and upbraideth not. And it shall be given him.

⁶But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, which is moved and carried about by the wind.

⁷Therefore let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

⁸A double minded man is inconstant in all his ways.

⁹But let the brother of low condition glory in his exaltation:

¹⁰And the rich, in his being low: because as the flower of the grass shall he pass away.

¹¹For the sun rose with a burning heat and parched the grass: and the flower thereof fell off, and the beauty of the shape thereof perished. So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

¹²Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for, when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life which God hath promised to them that love him.

¹³Let no man, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted by God. For God is not a tempter of evils: and he tempteth no man.

¹⁴But every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured.

¹⁵Then, when concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. But sin, when it is completed, begetteth death.

¹⁶Do not err, therefore, my dearest brethren.

¹⁷Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change nor shadow of alteration.

¹⁸For of his own will hath he begotten us by the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of his creature.

¹⁹You know, my dearest brethren. And let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak and slow to anger.

²⁰For the anger of man worketh not the justice of God.

²¹Wherefore, casting away all uncleanness and abundance of naughtiness, with meekness receive the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

²²But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

²³For if a man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass.

²⁴For he beheld himself and went his way and presently forgot what manner of man he was.

²⁵But he that hath looked into the perfect law of liberty and hath continued therein, not becoming a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work: this man shall be blessed in his deed.

²⁶And if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

²⁷Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation and to keep one’s self unspotted from this world.

Chapter 2

My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory, with respect of persons.

²For if there shall come into your assembly a man having a golden ring, in fine apparel; and there shall come in also a poor man in mean attire:

³And you have respect to him that is clothed with the fine apparel and shall say to him: Sit thou here well: but say to the poor man: Stand thou there, or: Sit under my footstool:

⁴Do you not judge within yourselves, and are become judges of unjust thoughts?

⁵Hearken, my dearest brethren: Hath not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him?

⁶But you have dishonoured the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you by might? And do not they draw you before the judgment seats?

⁷Do not they blaspheme the good name that is invoked upon you?

⁸If then you fulfil the royal law, according to the scriptures: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; you do well.

⁹But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin, being reproved by the law as transgressors.

¹⁰And whosoever shall keep the whole law, but offend in one point, is become guilty of all.

¹¹For he that said: Thou shalt not commit adultery, said also: Thou shalt not kill. Now if thou do not commit adultery, but shalt kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

¹²So speak ye and so do, as being to be judged by the law of liberty.

¹³For judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy. And mercy exalteth itself above judgment.

¹⁴What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but hath not works? Shall faith be able to save him?

¹⁵And if a brother or sister be naked and want daily food:

¹⁶And one of you say to them: Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; yet give them not those things that are necessary for the body, what shall it profit?

¹⁷So faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself.

¹⁸But some man will say: Thou hast faith, and I have works. Shew me thy faith without works; and I will shew thee, by works, my faith.

¹⁹Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well: the devils also believe and tremble.

²⁰But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

²¹Was not Abraham our father justified by works, offering up Isaac his son upon the altar?

²²Seest thou that faith did cooperate with his works and by works faith was made perfect?

²³And the scripture was fulfilled, saying: Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him to justice, and he was called the friend of God.

²⁴Do you see that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only?

²⁵And in like manner also Rahab the harlot, was not she justified by works, receiving the messengers and sending them out another way?

²⁶For even as the body without the spirit is dead: so also faith without works is dead.