James

WPNT(i) 1 James, a slave of God and of Sovereign Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes that are in the Dispersion: Greetings. 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, whenever you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance; 4 but let that endurance have a complete work, so that you may be perfect and complete, falling short in nothing. 5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask from the giving God, who gives to all liberally and does not reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 However, let him ask in faith, with no doubting, because he who doubts is like a sea wave driven and tossed by the wind— 7 such a man should not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. 9 Now the lowly brother should glory in his high position, 10 but the rich brother in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a flower of wild grass. 11 For the sun rises with its burning heat and withers the grass, and its flower falls off and the beauty of its face perishes. Just so the rich man will be withered in his undertakings. 12 A man who endures testing is blessed, because upon becoming approved he will receive the crown of the life that the Lord has promised to those loving Him. 13 Let no one, upon being tempted, say, “I am being tempted by God,” because God is untemptable by evil, so He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted by his own craving, being taken in tow and enticed. 15 Then the craving, upon conceiving, gives birth to sin, and the sin, upon completion, delivers death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers: 17 every good giving and every perfect gift is from Above, coming down from the Father of the lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18 Having willed it, He brought us forth by a word of truth, so that we might be a sort of first fruits of His products. 19 So then, my beloved brothers, let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 because a man’s anger does not achieve God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore, laying aside all filthiness and overflow of evil, receive with meekness the implanted Word which is able to save your souls. 22 Further, become word doers and not just hearers, deceiving yourselves. 23 Because if anyone is a law hearer and not a doer, the same is like a man observing his physical face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, then goes away and promptly forgets what he’s like. 25 But he who looks carefully into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, he—not being a forgetful hearer but a work doer—he will be blessed in what he does. 26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his heart, his religion is useless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their adversity; to keep oneself unspotted from the world.