1 JAMES, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the Twelve Tribes which are scattered in foreign lands: Greeting.

2 Think it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into all sorts of trials,

3 since you know that the testing of your faith brings out endurance.

4 Let endurance do its complete work, that you may be complete and perfect, lacking in nothing.

5 If any one of you is lacking in wisdom, let him ask it from God, who gives to all freely without reproaching, and it will be given to him.

6 But he must ask in faith with never a doubt. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.

7 For that man must not think that he will obtain anything from the Lord \'97

8 a two-minded man unsteady in all his ways.

9 Let the lowly brother glory in his high station,

10 and let the rich brother glory in his lowly station, for he will pass away like a flower of the grass.

11 For the sun rises with scorching heat and dries up the grass, and the flower of it falls and the beauty of its face perishes. So shall the rich man wither in his pursuits.

12 Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has been tested he will gain the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

13 No one must say when tempted, "My temptation comes from God." For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he tempts no one.

14 Every one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own passions and enticed.

15 Then when passion has conceived it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.

16 Make no mistake, my beloved brethren,

17 every good gift and every perfect boon is from above; it descends from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change or shadow caused by turning.

18 Of his own will he made us his children through the message of truth, so that we might be a sort of first fruits of his creatures.

19 I wish you to know this, my beloved brethren: Every man must be quick to hear, but slow to speak, slow to anger.

20 For a man's anger does not work out God's righteousness.

21 So lay aside all that is vile and all that remains of malice, and receive with gentleness the implanted message which can save your souls.

22 Become doers of the message and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if one is a hearer of the message and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror.

24 He looks at himself and is gone, and immediately forgets what sort of man he was.

25 But he who looks earnestly into the perfect law of liberty and continues to do so, and becomes not a forgetful hearer but a doer of work \'97 that man will be blessed in what he does.

26 If any one thinks himself religious while he does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, that man's religion is worthless.

27 Pure and stainless religion in the sight of God the Father is to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep one's self unspotted from the world.