The Letter From James

1 James, servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes abroad, greeting.

2 Think it all gladness, my brothers, when you fall into varied temptations, 3 knowing that the test of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness take complete effect, that you may be complete, sound all over, not lacking in any respect. 5 But if one of you is lacking in wisdom let him ask of the God who gives wholeheartedly to all and says no more about it. 6 But let him ask in faith, without any doubting; for one who doubts is like a swell at sea blown about and tossing. 7 For let not that man think that he will get anything from the Lord— 8 a man of two minds, fickle in all his courses. 9 But let the lowly brother glory in his loftiness, 10 and the rich in his lowliness, because he shall pass away like field flowers. 11 For the sun rises with the hot wind, and dries up the plants, and their flowers fall off and the beauty of their faces is gone; so the rich man too shall wither in his wayfarings. 12 Happy is the man who endures temptation, because when he has stood the test he shall receive the wreath of life which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one, when he is tempted, say “I am being tempted by God”; for God feels no temptations to evil, and himself tempts nobody. 14 But each one is tempted by being enticed and allured by his own desire; 15 then desire becomes pregnant and gives birth to sin, and sin grows up and brings forth its offspring death. 16 Do not be misled, my dear brothers. 17 Every good giving, every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no such thing as a variation or the shadowing of a turn. 18 Purposely did he, by the word of truth, bring us forth as his offspring, to the end that we should be a sort of firstfruits of his creatures.

19* You know it, my dear brothers. But let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for man’s anger does not practice God’s righteousness. 21 Wherefore, laying off all befoulment and profusion of malice, receive in meekness the implanted word that is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of words, and not merely self-cheating hearers; 23 because whoever is a hearer of a word and not a doer, he is like a man looking in a glass at the face he was born with; 24 for he looks at himself and goes off and forgets at once what he was like. 25 But he who gazes into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and stays by it, not showing himself a forgetful hearer but a doer in act, happy shall he be in his doing. 26 If one thinks himself devout while not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, that man’s devotions are futile. 27 Pure and undefiled devotions in the eyes of God the Father are these: to look after orphans and widows in their distress; to keep one’s self unspotted from the world.

2* My brothers, let it not be with partiality that you hold the faith of our Lord of glory Jesus Christ. 2 For if there comes into a synagogue of yours a man with a gold ring, in splendid dress, and there comes in also a poor man in soiled dress, 3 and you take notice of the one who wears the splendid dress and say “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man “You stand there, or sit under my footstool,”— 4* are you not in conflict with yourselves, and have you not shown yourselves judges swayed by base influences? 5 Listen, my dear brothers: did not God choose those who are poor as to the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the royalty which he promised to those who love him? 6 but you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich tyrannize over you and do not they drag you before tribunals? 7 do not they blaspheme the goodly name by which you are called?

8 If, however, you fulfill the royal law according to the text “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; 9 but if you show partiality you are practicing sin, being convicted by the law as violators. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but makes a slip in one point has become guilty of all. 11 For he who said “Do not commit adultery” said also “Do not murder”; and if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder you have become a violator of the law. 12 So speak, and so do, as men who are to be judged by a law of liberty. 13* For justice is pitiless to him who has not showed pity; pity flouts justice.

14 What is the use, my brothers, if one says he has faith, but does not have deeds? can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister be naked and in lack of daily food, 16 and one of you say to them “Good luck to you, keep warm and eat heartily,” but you do not give them what is requisite for the body, what is the use? 17 just so faith, if it does not have deeds, is dead in itself. 18 But a man will say “You have faith and I have deeds; show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19** You believe that there is one God? you do well: the demons too believe, and shiver. 20 But do you want to know, hollow man, that faith without deeds is idle? 21 Was not Father Abraham justified by deeds, in that he sacrificed his son Isaac on the altar? 22 do you perceive that faith cooperated with his deeds, and faith was perfected by deeds? 23 and the text which says ‘And Abraham believed God, and it was counted as righteousness for him, and he was called God’s friend’ was fulfilled.” 24 You see that a man is justified by deeds and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not Rahab the prostitute justified by deeds, when she took in the messengers and sent them out another way? 26 For as the body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without deeds is dead.

3 Do not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we shall come under greater responsibility. 2 For we one and all make many slips. If anyone does not slip in speech, that man is a complete man, able to bridle the whole body too. 3 And if we put bits in horses’ mouths to have them obey us, we bring around their whole body too. 4 Ships also, great as they are and driven by hard winds, are brought around by a little helm whichever way the steersman’s push will have it. 5* So is the tongue a small organ and boasts a great record. What a great forest the least bit of fire will kindle! and the tongue is a fire. 6 The tongue is set among our organs as the world of wrong, what spots the whole body and sets aflame the wheel of birth and is set aflame by hell.

7 For every species of beasts and of birds, and of reptiles and the creatures of the sea, is and has been subdued by the human species; 8 but the tongue no human being can subdue, unquiet evil that it is, full of death-dealing venom. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the likeness of God: 10 out of the same mouth come blessing and curse; my brothers, these things ought not to be so done. 11 Does a spring flow sweet and bitter out of the same orifice? 12 can a fig-tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a grapevine figs? neither can salt water produce sweet.

13 Who is there among you that is wise and intelligent? let him show his deeds out of a good life, in meekness of wisdom. 14* But if you have bitter jealousy and contest in your hearts, do not flout the truth and tell lies against it. 15 This wisdom is not heaven-descended but terrestrial, animal, fiendlike; 16 for where jealousy and contests are, there is disorder and every faulty action. 17 But the heaven-descended wisdom is first pure, then peaceable, reasonable, tractable, full of pity and good fruits, with no misgivings and no insincerities; 18 and fruit of righteousness is sowed in peace for those who make peace.

4 What is the origin of wars and fightings among you? is it not this, your pleasures campaigning in your organism? 2** You desire and do not have, you murder and are jealous and cannot obtain—you fight and make war. You do not have because you do not ask; 3 you ask and do not get because you ask wrongly, to spend it in your pleasures. 4* Adulteresses, do you not know that friendship to the world is enmity to God? so anyone who wishes to be a friend of the world becomes, as such, an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think it is meaninglessly that the text says “The spirit that he has housed in us longs enviously”? 6 But he gives a greater grace; for which reason it says “God sets himself against the proud but gives grace to the lowly.” 7 So be submissive to God; but stand up against the devil and he will run from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Clean your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, men of two minds; 9 be miserable, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning and your gladness to abasement. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will uplift you.

11 Do not talk disparagingly of each other, brothers. He who disparages or judges his brother is disparaging and judging the law; and if you judge the law you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver and judge, he who can save and can destroy; but who are you, you who judge your neighbor?

13 Come now, you who say “Today or tomorrow we will go to such a city and spend a year there and trade and make profits”— 14 when you do not know what the future holds; for what is your life? for you are vapor, that appears for a little while and then just disappears— 15 instead of saying “If the Lord will we shall both live and do this or that.” 16 But now you are glorying in your great claims; any such glorying is wicked. 17 So, when one knows enough to do right and does not, it is a sin of his.

5 Come on now, rich men, weep and howl over your miseries to come. 2 Your wealth has rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten, 3 your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a testimony to you and will eat your flesh like fire. 4* You have been hoarding in the last days; here the delayed pay of the laborers who reaped your acres is crying out, and the clamor of the harvesters has entered the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5 You have been living in luxury and self-indulgence on the earth, you have been feeding your hearts in a day of slaughter; 6 you have been condemning the man who was in the right, murdering him—he does not make any stand against you.

7 So, brothers, have patience till the Lord’s coming. How the farmer waits for the precious crops of the soil, having patience over them till they get the early rains and the late rains! 8 Have patience yourselves, fortify your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is almost here. 9 Do not sigh against each other, brothers, that you may not be judged: here is the judge standing at the doors. 10 Take as an example of fortitude and patience, brothers, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 How we admire the condition of those who endured! you have heard of Job’s endurance, and seen the Lord’s ending, that the Lord is tenderhearted and compassionate.

12 And above all, my brothers, do not swear, neither by heaven nor by the earth nor any other oath; but let your yes be yes and your no no, that you may not come under judgment.

13 Is anyone among you having hardships? let him pray. Is anyone feeling cheery? let him sing hymns. 14 Is anyone among you sick? let him call in the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, putting oil on him in the name of the Lord, 15 and the prayer of faith shall make the sufferer well, and the Lord shall raise him; and if he has committed sins he shall be forgiven. 16 So confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed. Great is the efficacy of a righteous man’s strenuous prayer. 17 Elijah was a man subject to the same limitations as we are, and he specially prayed that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth three years and six months; 18 and he prayed again and the sky gave showers and the earth started to grow crops.

19 My brothers, if one among you strays from the truth and someone brings him back, 20** let him know that he who brings a sinner back from his straying course will save him from death and cover a multitude of sins.

MARGINAL READINGS TO JAMES