James 1–2

Greeting

1James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion. Greetings!

Trials, Testing, and Faith

²Consider it all joy, my brothers, whenever you encounter various trials, ³because you^* know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

⁵Now if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask for it from God, who gives to all without reservation and not reproaching, and it will be given to him. ⁶But let him ask for it in faith, without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed about. ⁷For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

⁹Now let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his high position, ¹⁰but the rich person in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a flower of the grass. ¹¹For the sun rises with its burning heat and dries up the grass, and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is lost. So also the rich person in his pursuits^a will wither away.

¹²Blessed is the person^b who endures testing, because when he^* is approved he will receive the crown of life that he^c has promised to those who love him. ¹³No one who is being tempted should say, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted^d by evil, and he himself tempts no one. ¹⁴But each one is tempted when he^* is dragged away and enticed by his own desires. ¹⁵Then desire, after it^* has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it^* is brought to completion, gives birth to death.

¹⁶Do not be deceived, my dear brothers. ¹⁷Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of change. ¹⁸By his^* will he gave birth to us through the message of truth, so that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

Doers of the Message, Not Just Hearers

¹⁹Understand this, my dear brothers: every person must be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, ²⁰for human^e anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God. ²¹Therefore, putting aside all moral uncleanness and wicked excess, welcome^f with humility the implanted message which is able to save your souls.

²²But be doers of the message and not hearers only,^g deceiving yourselves, ²³because if anyone is a hearer of the message and not a doer, this one is like someone^h staring at his own faceⁱ in a mirror, ²⁴for he looks at himself and goes away and immediately forgets what sort of person he was. ²⁵But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues to do it, not being a forgetful hearer but a doer who acts, this one will be blessed in what he does^j.

²⁶If anyone thinks he is religious, although he^* does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. ²⁷Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our^* God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Partiality Forbidden

2My brothers, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with partiality. ²For if someone^a enters into your assembly^b in fine clothing with a gold ring on his finger, and a poor person in filthy clothing also enters, ³and you look favorably on the one wearing the fine clothing and you say, “Be seated here in a good place,” and to the poor person you say, “You stand or be seated there^c by my footstool,” ⁴have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵Listen, my dear brothers! Did not God choose the poor of the world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? ⁶But you have dishonored the poor! Are not the rich exploiting you and they themselves dragging you into the courts? ⁷Do they themselves not blaspheme the good name of the one to whom you belong^d?

⁸However, if you carry out the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”^e you are doing well. ⁹But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and thus^* are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point only has become guilty of all of it. ¹¹For the one who said “Do not commit adultery”^f also said “Do not murder.”^g Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹²Thus speak and thus act as those who are going to be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³For judgment is merciless to the one who has not practiced mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith and Works

¹⁴What is the benefit, my brothers, if someone says that he has faith but does not have works? That faith is not able to save him, is it?^{* 15}If a brother or a sister is poorly clothed and lacking food for the day, ¹⁶and one of you should say to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well^h,” but does not give them what is necessary for the body, what is the benefit? ¹⁷Thus also faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.

¹⁸But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.”ⁱ Show me your faith apart from your^* works, and I will show you my^* faith by my works. ¹⁹You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe, and shudder! ²⁰But do you want to know, O foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? ²¹Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he^* offered up his son Isaac on the altar? ²²You see that faith was working together with his works, and by the works the faith was perfected. ²³And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness,”^j and he was called God’s friend. ²⁴You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵And likewise was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she^* welcomed the messengers and sent them out by a different route? ²⁶For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.