Chapter 1
1 James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to the twelve tribes in the dispersion. Rejoice!
2 All joy deem it, my brethren, whenever you should be
falling into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith is producing
endurance.
4 Now let endurance have its perfect work, that you may
be perfect and unimpaired, lacking in nothing.
5 Now if anyone of you is lacking wisdom, let him be
requesting it from God, Who is giving to all generously and is not reproaching, and it
shall be given to him.
6 Yet let him be requesting in faith, doubting nothing,
for he who is doubting simulates a surge of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man be surmising that he shall be
obtaining anything from the Lord --
8 a man double-souled, turbulent in all his ways.
9 Now let the humble brother be glorying in his
exaltation,
10 yet the rich in his humiliation, for, as the flower of
grass, shall he pass by.
11 For the sun rises, together with the scorching heat,
and withers the grass, and its flower falls off, and the comeliness of its aspect
perished. Thus the rich also in his goings shall be caused to fade.
12 Happy is the man who is enduring trial, for, becoming
qualified, he will be obtaining the wreath of life, which He promises to those loving Him.
13 Let no one, undergoing trial, be saying that
"From God am I undergoing trial," for God is not tried by evils, yet He is
trying no one.
14 Now each one is undergoing trial when he is drawn away
and lured by his own desire.
15 Thereafter, the desire, conceiving, is bringing forth
sin. Now sin, fully consummated, is teeming forth death.
16 Be not deceived, my beloved brethren!
17 All good giving and every perfect gratuity is from
above, descending from the Father of lights, in Whom there is no mutation or shadow from
revolving motion.
18 By intention, He teems forth us by the word of truth,
for us to be some firstfruit of His own creatures.
19 Now you are aware, my beloved brethren! Yet let every
man be swift to hear, tardy to speak, tardy to anger,
20 for the anger of man is not working the righteousness
of God.
21 Wherefore, putting off all filthiness and
superabundance of evil, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save
your souls.
22 Now become doers of the word, and not only listeners,
beguiling yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a listener to the word and not a
doer, this one simulates a man considering the face he inherited in a mirror;
24 for he considers himself and has come away, and
immediately forgot what kind he was.
25 Now he who peers into the perfect law, that of
freedom, and abides, not becoming a forgetful listener, but a doer of the work, this one
will be happy in his doing.
26 If anyone is seeming to be a ritualist, not bridling
his tongue, but seducing his heart, the ritual of this one is vain,
27 for ritual clean and undefiled with God the Father is
this: to be visiting the bereaved and widowed in their affliction, to be keeping oneself
unspotted from the world. |