James - Chapter 1 | New King James Version

  • 1. James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings.
  • 2. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
  • 3. knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
  • 4. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
  • 5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
  • 6. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
  • 7. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
  • 8. he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
  • 9. Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation,
  • 10. but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away.
  • 11. For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.
  • 12. Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
  • 13. Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
  • 14. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
  • 15. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
  • 16. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
  • 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
  • 18. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
  • 19. So then, {cf2super [1]} my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;
  • 20. for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
  • 21. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
  • 22. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
  • 23. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
  • 24. for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
  • 25. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
  • 26. If anyone among you {cf2super [2]} thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless.
  • 27. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
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