James Chapter 1
1 From James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the twelve tribes that are scattered: Greetings.
2 My family⁺, count it all joy when you fall into many different⁺ trials⁺.
3 Know that the testing⁺ of your faith works~ patience.
4 And let patience have its perfect~ work so that you may be perfect~ and complete⁺, lacking⁺ in nothing.
5 If any of you lack wisdom, then ask God who gives to everyone liberally and does not upbraid, and it will be given. Matthew 7:7
6 But ask in faith, not wavering. For those who waver are like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For do not suppose that one⁺ who is wavering will receive anything from the Lord.
8 A double minded person⁺ is unstable in all their ways.
9 Let those⁺ of low degree rejoice in their elevation⁺,
10 and let the rich rejoice in being humbled⁺. Because, like the flower of the grass, they will pass away.
11 For the sun rises with a burning heat and withers the grass, and its flower falls and the grace of the fashion of it perishes. So also will the rich fade away in their ways.
12 Blessed are those who patiently endure trials⁺. For when they are proved⁺, they will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
13 Let no one say, when tempted, I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, nor does He tempt anyone.
14 But everyone⁺ is tempted when drawn away by lust and enticed.
15 Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin. And sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.
16 Do not err my beloved⁺.
17 Every good gift and every perfect~ gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. Malachi 3:6
18 Of His own will God brought⁺ us forth with the Word of Truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.
19 Therefore my beloved⁺, let everyone⁺ be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger⁺. Matthew 12:36 Proverbs 10:19 Proverbs 14:9
20 For anger⁺ does not produce⁺ the righteousness of God.
21 Therefore, put away⁺ all filthiness and superfluity~ of naughtiness. Instead, receive with meekness, the engrafted Word that is able to save your souls.
22 But then be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if any are hearers of the Word and not doers, they are like those beholding their natural face in a mirror⁺.
24 For they behold themselves and then go away and immediately⁺ forget what kind⁺ of person they are.
25 But whoever looks into the perfect~ law of liberty and continues therein, not being a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, shall be blessed in their deeds.
26 If any among you seem to be religious and do not bridle their tongue but deceive their own hearts, their religion is vain.
27 Pure religion, undefiled before God the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keep oneself unspotted from the world.