1 James , a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ , to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad , greeting . 2 My brethren , count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations ;
3 Knowing this , that the trying of your faith worketh patience . 4 But let patience have her perfect work , that ye may be perfect and entire , wanting nothing .
5 If any of you lack wisdom , let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally , and upbraideth not;shall be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith , nothing wavering .that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed .
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord .
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways .
9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted :
10 But the rich , in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away .
11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat , but it withereth the grass , and the flower thereof falleth , and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth : so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways .
12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation : for when he is tried , he shall receive the crown of life , which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. 13 Let no man say when he is tempted , I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil , neither tempteth he any man:
14 But every man is tempted , when he is drawn away of his own lust , and enticed .
15 Then when lust hath conceived , it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished , bringeth forth death . 16 Do not err, my beloved brethren .
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above , and cometh down from the Father of lights , with whom is no variableness , neither shadow of turning . 18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth , that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures .
19 Wherefore , my beloved brethren , let every man be swift to hear , slow to speak , slow to wrath : 20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness , and receive with meekness the engrafted word , which is able to save your souls . 22 But be ye doers of the word , and not hearers only , deceiving your own selves .
23 For if any be a hearer of the word , and not a doer , he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass :
24 For he beholdeth himself , and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty , and continueth therein , he being not a forgetful hearer , but a doer of the work , this man shall be blessed in his deed .
26 If any man among you seem to be religious , and bridleth not his tongue , but deceiveth his own heart , this man’s religion is vain .
27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this , To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction , and to keep himself unspotted from the world .