james a servant of god and of the lord jesus christ to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad greeting
my brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations
knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience
but let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing
if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of god that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him
but let him ask in faith nothing wavering for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed
for let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the lord
a double minded man is unstable in all his ways
let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted
but the rich in that he is made low because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away
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
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
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
but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed
then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death
do not err my beloved brethren
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
of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures
wherefore my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath
for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of god
wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls
but be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves
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
for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was
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
if any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart this mans religion is vain
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