James Chapter 1

1James a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve Tribes, which are scattered abroad, salutation.

2My brethren, count it exceeding joy, when ye fall into divers tentations,

3Knowing that the trying of your faith bringeth forth patience,

4And let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing.

5If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, which giveth to all men liberally, and reproacheth no man, and it shall be given him.

6But let him ask in faith, and waver not: for he that wavereth, is like a wave of the sea, tossed of the wind, and carried away.

7Neither let that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.

8A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

9Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:

10Again, he that is rich, in that he is made low: for as the flower of the grass, shall he vanish away.

11For as when the sun riseth with heat, then the grass withereth, and his flower falleth away, and the goodly shape of it perisheth: even so shall the rich man wither away in all his ways.

12Blessed is the man, that endureth tentation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

13Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.

14But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own concupiscence, and is enticed.

15Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

16Err not my dear brethren.

17Every good giving and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

18Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be as the firstfruits of his creatures.

19Wherefore my dear brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath.

20For the wrath of man doth not accomplish the righteousness of God.

21Wherefore lay apart all filthiness, and superfluity of maliciousness, and receive with meekness the word that is grafted in you, which is able to save your souls.

22And be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23For if any hear the word, and do it not, he is like unto a man, that beholdeth his natural face in a glass.

24For when he hath considered himself, he goeth his way, and forgetteth immediately what manner of one he was.

25But who so looketh in the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, shall be blessed in his deed.

26If any man among you seem religious, and refraineth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

27Pure religion and undefiled before God, even the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless, and widows in their adversity, and to keep himself unspotted of the world.