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.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

*Here “because” is supplied as a component of the participle (“know”) which is understood as causal
aOr “on his (business) journeys”; or “in his ways”
bLiterally “the man,” but clearly in a generic sense here meaning “someone, a person”
*Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“is”) which is understood as temporal
cMost manuscripts read “the Lord” here, while others read “God”
dLiterally “is without temptation”
*Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“is dragged away”) which is understood as temporal
*Here “after” is supplied as a component of the participle (“has conceived”) which is understood as temporal
*Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“is brought to completion”) which is understood as temporal
*Here “by” is supplied as a component of the participle (“will”) which is understood as means
eLiterally “man’s”
fOr “receive”
gSome manuscripts have “not only hearers”
hLiterally “a man,” but clearly in a generic sense here meaning “someone, a person”
iLiterally “the face of his existence”
jLiterally “in his doing”
*Here “although” is supplied as a component of the participle (“bridle”) which is understood as concessive
*Literally “the”; the Greek article is used here as a possessive pronoun