1:1  James, bondman of God and of [the] Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which [are] in the dispersion, greeting.

1:2  Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into various temptations,

1:3  knowing that the proving of your faith works endurance.

1:4  But let endurance have [its] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

1:5  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:

1:6  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;

1:7  for let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord;

1:8  [he is] a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

1:9  But let the brother of low degree glory in his elevation,

1:10  and the rich in his humiliation, because as [the] grass's flower he will pass away.

1:11  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.

1:12  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.

1:13  Let no man, being tempted, say, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted by evil things, and himself tempts no one.

1:14  But every one is tempted, drawn away, and enticed by his own lust;

1:15  then lust, having conceived, gives birth to sin; but sin fully completed brings forth death.

1:16  Do not err, my beloved brethren.

1:17  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.

1:18  According to his own will begat he us by the word of truth, that we should be a certain first-fruits of *his* creatures.

1:19  So that, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;

1:20  for man's wrath does not work God's righteousness.

1:21  Wherefore, laying aside all filthiness and abounding of wickedness, accept with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

1:22  But be ye doers of [the] word and not hearers only, beguiling yourselves.

1:23  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:

1:24  for he has considered himself and is gone away, and straightway he has forgotten what he was like.

1:25  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.

1:26  If any one think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, this man's religion is vain.

1:27  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.