Chapter 1

  James, bondman of God and of [the] Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which [are] in the dispersion, greeting.  

  Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into various temptations,  

  knowing that the proving of your faith works endurance.  

  But let endurance have [its] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  

  But 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:  

  but 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;  

  for let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord;  

  [he is] a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.  

  But let the brother of low degree glory in his elevation,  

  and the rich in his humiliation, because as [the] grass's flower he will pass away.  

  For 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.  

  Blessed [is the] man who endures temptation; for, having been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which He has promised to them that love him.  

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

  But every one is tempted, drawn away, and enticed by his own lust;  

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

  Do not err, my beloved brethren.  

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

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

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

  for man's wrath does not work God's righteousness.  

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

  But be ye doers of [the] word and not hearers only, beguiling yourselves.  

  For if any man be a hearer of [the] word and not a doer, he is like to a man considering his natural face in a mirror:  

  for he has considered himself and is gone away, and straightway he has forgotten what he was like.  

  But he that fixes his view on [the] perfect law, that of liberty, and abides in [it], being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of [the] work, he shall be blessed in his doing.  

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

  Pure 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.