Greeting

¹James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad: Greetings.

Trials Bring Perseverance

²Y’all should consider it all joy, my siblings, when y’all fall into various trials,

³knowing that the testing of y’all’s faith produces perseverance.

⁴Let perseverance have its perfect work so that y’all may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

⁵But if any of y’all lacks wisdom, that person should ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to them.

⁶But a person should ask in faith without doubt, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

⁷That human shouldn’t expect to receive anything from the Lord,

⁸being a double-minded person, unstable in all their ways.

⁹Let the sibling in humble circumstances take pride in their high position,

¹⁰but the rich person should take pride in their humiliation, since they will pass away like a wildflower in the grass.

¹¹For the sun rises with scorching wind and withers the grass. Then the flower falls, and its beautiful appearance is destroyed. So the rich person will also fade away in their pursuits.

¹²Blessed is the one who endures testing, because after being approved, that person will receive the crown of life which the Lord promised to those who love ʜɪᴍ.

¹³When tempted, no one should say, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and ʜᴇ ʜɪᴍꜱᴇʟꜰ tempts no one.

¹⁴But each person is tempted when they are lured and enticed by their own desire.

¹⁵Then the desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and the sin, when it is fully grown, produces death.

¹⁶Y’all must not be deceived, my beloved siblings.

¹⁷Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

¹⁸According to his purpose, he brought us forth by the word of truth, so we would be a kind of first fruits among ʜɪꜱ creation.

Hearing Versus Doing

¹⁹Y’all pay attention, my beloved siblings, every human should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

²⁰because human anger doesn’t produce the righteousness of God.

²¹Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and excess evil, with humility y’all should receive the implanted word, which is able to save y’all’s souls.

²²But y’all must become doers of the word, not only hearers who deceive themselves.

²³For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, they are like a person who looks at their natural face in a mirror,

²⁴sees themselves, then goes away and immediately forgets what kind of person they were.

²⁵But the one who looks into the perfect law of freedom and stays close to it, not becoming a forgetful hearer but an effective doer, that person will be blessed in what they do.

²⁶If anyone thinks of themself as religious but doesn’t bridle their tongue, they deceive their own heart and their religion is worthless.

²⁷Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.