²My brothers and sisters, be very happy when you are tested in different ways. ³You know that such testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴Endure until your testing is over. Then you will be mature and complete, and you won’t need anything.

⁵If any of you needs wisdom to know what you should do, you should ask God, and he will give it to you. God is generous to everyone and doesn’t find fault with them. ⁶When you ask for something, don’t have any doubts. A person who has doubts is like a wave that is blown by the wind and tossed by the sea. ⁷A person who has doubts shouldn’t expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸A person who has doubts is thinking about two different things at the same time and can’t make up his mind about anything.

⁹Humble believers should be proud because being humble makes them important. ¹⁰Rich believers should be proud because being rich should make them humble. Rich people will wither like flowers. ¹¹The sun rises with its scorching heat and dries up plants. The flowers drop off, and the beauty is gone. The same thing will happen to rich people. While they are busy, they will die.

¹²Blessed are those who endure when they are tested. When they pass the test, they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. ¹³When someone is tempted, he shouldn’t say that God is tempting him. God can’t be tempted by evil, and God doesn’t tempt anyone. ¹⁴Everyone is tempted by his own desires as they lure him away and trap him. ¹⁵Then desire becomes pregnant and gives birth to sin. When sin grows up, it gives birth to death.

¹⁶My dear brothers and sisters, don’t be fooled. ¹⁷Every good present and every perfect gift comes from above, from the Father who made the sun, moon, and stars. The Father doesn’t change like the shifting shadows produced by the sun and the moon.

¹⁸God decided to give us life through the word of truth to make us his most important creatures.

¹⁹Remember this, my dear brothers and sisters: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and should not get angry easily. ²⁰An angry person doesn’t do what God approves of. ²¹So get rid of all immoral behavior and all the wicked things you do. Humbly accept the word that God has placed in you. This word can save you.

²²Do what God’s word says. Don’t merely listen to it, or you will fool yourselves. ²³If someone listens to God’s word but doesn’t do what it says, he is like a person who looks at his face in a mirror, ²⁴studies his features, goes away, and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵However, the person who continues to study God’s perfect laws that make people free and who remains committed to them will be blessed. People like that don’t merely listen and forget; they actually do what God’s laws say.

²⁶If a person thinks that he is religious but can’t control his tongue, he is fooling himself. That person’s religion is worthless. ²⁷Pure, unstained religion, according to God our Father, is to take care of orphans and widows when they suffer and to remain uncorrupted by this world.

2ND CHAPTER

Don’t Favor Rich People over Poor People

¹My brothers and sisters, practice your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ by not favoring one person over another. ²For example, two men come to your worship service. One man is wearing gold rings and fine clothes; the other man, who is poor, is wearing shabby clothes. ³Suppose you give special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say to him, “Please have a seat.” But you say to the poor man, “Stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor at my feet.” ⁴Aren’t you discriminating against people and using a corrupt standard to make judgments?

⁵Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! Didn’t God choose poor people in the world to become rich in faith and to receive the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? ⁶Yet, you show no respect to poor people. Don’t rich people oppress you and drag you into court? ⁷Don’t they curse the good name ⸤of Jesus⸥, the name that was used to bless you?

⁸You are doing right if you obey this law from the highest authority: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” ⁹If you favor one person over another, you’re sinning, and this law convicts you of being disobedient. ¹⁰If someone obeys all of God’s laws except one, that person is guilty of breaking all of them. ¹¹After all, the one who said, “Never commit adultery,” is the same one who said, “Never murder.” If you do not commit adultery but you murder, you become a person who disobeys God’s laws.

¹²Talk and act as people who are going to be judged by laws that bring freedom. ¹³No mercy will be shown to those who show no mercy to others. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

We Show Our Faith by What We Do

¹⁴My brothers and sisters, what good does it do if someone claims to have faith but doesn’t do any good things? Can this kind of faith save him? ¹⁵Suppose a believer, whether a man or a woman, needs clothes or food ¹⁶and one of you tells that person, “God be with you! Stay warm, and make sure you eat enough.” If you don’t provide for that person’s physical needs, what good does it do? ¹⁷In the same way, faith by itself is dead if it doesn’t cause you to do any good things.

¹⁸Another person might say, “You have faith, but I do good things.” Show me your faith apart from the good things you do. I will show you my faith by the good things I do. ¹⁹You believe that there is one God. That’s fine! The demons also believe that, and they tremble with fear.

²⁰You fool! Do you have to be shown that faith which does nothing is useless? ²¹Didn’t our ancestor Abraham receive God’s approval as a result of what he did when he offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice on the altar? ²²You see that Abraham’s faith and what he did worked together. His faith was shown to be genuine by what he did. ²³The Scripture passage came true. It says, “Abraham believed God, and that faith was regarded as the basis of Abraham’s approval by God.” So Abraham was called God’s friend. ²⁴You see that a person receives God’s approval because of what he does, not only because of what he believes. ²⁵The same is true of the prostitute Rahab who welcomed the spies and sent them away on another road. She received God’s approval because of what she did.

²⁶A body that doesn’t breathe^ais dead. In the same way faith that does nothing is dead.

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Footnotes

a 1:1 Or “to the twelve tribes.”
a 2:26 Or “A body without a spirit.”