Chapter One
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the diaspora, greeting! Count it all joy my brethren when you fall into various adversities, knowing that the trying of your faith works out endurance. And let endurance have her perfect work so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
And if any one of you lacks wisdom let him ask from God, who gives to all freely and doesn’t reproach, and it’ll be given him. But let him ask in faith, doubting nothing, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea being driven by the wind and tossed about. For don’t let that man suppose he’ll receive anything from the Lord: a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
But let the brother of low degree boast in his being made high, and the rich in his humiliation because like the flower of the grass he’ll pass away. For the sun rose with its burning heat and dried up the grass, and its flower fell, and the beauty of its appearance perished: so too the rich man in his ways will wither. Blessed is the man who endures adversity because having been tried he’ll receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him.
Let no one, being tempted, say ‘I’m tempted by God.’ For God is incapable of being tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. But everyone is tempted by his own desires, being drawn away and enticed, then lust, having conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it’s completed brings forth death. Don’t be misled my beloved brethren. Every good act of giving, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there’s no variation or shadow of turning. Having desired to, he brought us forth by the word of truth so we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
So that my beloved brethren let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for a man’s anger doesn’t work out God’s righteousness. So then, having laid aside all filthiness and superfluity of wickedness, accept with gentleness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.
And be doers of the word and not just hearers, deceiving yourselves. Because if any man is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this man is like a man considering his natural face in a mirror: for he has considered himself and gone away. And at once he forgot what he was like. But he who has looked into the perfect law of freedom and has continued in it, this one, having been not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in his deeds.
If anyone among you seems to be religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure and undefiled relgion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
Chapter Two
My brethren, don’t have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of Glory in respect of persons. For if there comes into your gathering a man with gold rings and splendid clothing and also a poor man in filthy clothes, and you’ve looked on him wearing the splendid clothing and said to him, “Sit here comfortably”, and you’ve said to the poor one, “You stand there or sit here under my footstool!”, haven’t you made a distinction among yourselves, and become judges with evil reasonings?
Listen, my beloved brethren, hasn’t God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? But you’ve despised the poor one. Don’t the rich oppress you, and don’t they drag you to the tribunals? Don’t they blaspheme the good name by which you are called?
If indeed you keep the royal law according to the scripture: “You shall love your neighbour like yourself” you do well, but if you have respect of persons you’re committing sin, being convicted under the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point has become guilty of all. For he who said “Don’t commit adultery” also said “You mustn’t commit murder.” Now if you don’t commit adultery but do commit murder you’ve become a transgressor of the law. In this way speak and in that way do, as being about to be judged by the law of freedom, for judgement is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy, and mercy rejoices over judgement.
What is the benefit my brethren if anyone says he has faith but doesn’t have deeds? Can faith save him? And if a brother or sister is naked, and destitute as it were of daily food, and someone from among you says to him, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled!” but doesn’t give to him the things needful to the body, what’s the benefit? So too faith, if it doesn’t have deeds is, by itself, dead.
But someone will say, “You’ve got faith and I’ve got works.” Show me your faith without your works and I’ll show you my faith by my works! You believe that God is one. You do well - even the demons believe and shudder. But you should know, vain man, that faith without works is dead! Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working with his works, and by works faith was perfected? And the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Now Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him for righteousness,” and he was called “God’s friend.”
You see then that by works a man is justified and not only by faith. And similarly too wasn’t Rahab the harlot justified by works having received the messengers and having sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead too.
Chapter Three
Don’t let many be teachers my brethren, knowing that we’ll receive greater judgement. For we all stumble often. If anyone makes no mistakes in his words this one is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body too. Look, we put bits in the mouths of horses, so that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Look too at the ships, being so great and being driven by violent winds, they’re turned about by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the helmsman desires. So too the tongue is a very small member and boasts great things. Look how great a wood it kindles with only a little fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. Thus the tongue is placed in our members, the defiler of the whole body, both setting on fire the course of nature and being set on fire by hell. For every species of beasts and of birds, both of creeping things and things of the sea is subdued and has been subdued by the human species, but nobody can subdue the tongue - an evil that cannot be restrained, full of deadly poison.
With it we bless God, even the Father, and with it we curse men made after the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth blessing and cursing goes out. My brethren these things shouldn’t be so. Does the fountain pour out sweet and bitter from the same opening? My brethren, can a fig tree produce olives, or a vine, figs? So no fountain can produce salt and sweet water.
Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show from good conduct his works in wisdom’s gentleness, but if you’ve got bitter jealousy and contention in your heart, don’t boast and lie against the truth. This isn’t the wisdom coming down from above, but earthly, natural, devilish. For where envy and strife are, there’s confusion and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, yielding, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Chapter Four
From where do wars and fightings come among you? Isn’t it from your lusts which are at war in your members? You desire and you don’t have, you kill and are jealous, and can’t obtain, you fight and you make war, and you don’t have because you don’t ask. You ask and you don’t receive, because you ask in an evil manner, so that you may spend on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? So then whoever desires to be a friend of the world is set as an enemy of God. Or do you think the scripture says in vain, “The Spirit which took up its abode in us yearns with envy”? But he gives greater grace because he says, “God sets himself against the proud but gives grace to the lowly.” Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he’ll flee from you. Draw near to God and he’ll draw near to you. Sinners cleanse your hands, and purify your hearts you double minded ones. Be wretched and mourn and weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourself before the Lord and he’ll raise you up.
Don’t speak against each other, brethren. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother speaks against the law and sits in judgement on the law. And if you judge the law you’re not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver who’s able to save and to destroy - who are you who are judging another?
Go to now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we’ll go to such a city and we’ll spend a year there and will trade and make a profit!” You who don’t know what will be tomorrow, (For what is your life? It’s even a vapour which appears for a little and then disappears.) instead you should say, “If the Lord will - and we live - we’ll do this or that.” But now you are puffed up in your boastings. All such boasting is evil. So then to him who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, it’s a sin to him.
Chapter Five
Go to now rich ones, weep, howling over your miseries that are coming on you! Your riches have rotted, and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have been eaten away, and their rust will be a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You’ve stored up treasure in the last days. Look, the wages of the workers who’ve harvested your fields, which have been kept back by you, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You’ve lived in indulgence on the earth, and you’ve lived in self-gratification, you’ve nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You’ve condemned, you’ve killed the just. He doesn’t resist you.
So then, be patient brethren until the coming of the Lord. Look, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient for it until it receives the early and the latter rain. You too be patient. Establish your hearts because the coming of the Lord has drawn near. Don’t grumble against each other brethren, so that you’re not condemned. Look, the judge is standing before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who’ve spoken in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering affliction and of patience. Look, we call those who endure blessed. You’ve heard of the patience of Job, and you’ve seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is full of tender mercy and compassionate.
And above all things my brethren, don’t swear, neither by heaven, nor by earth, nor by any other oath, but let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’, ‘No’, so that you don’t fall into hypocrisy. Is anyone among you suffering hardships? Let him pray! Is anyone cheerful? Let him praise! Is anyone among you sick? Let him call the elders of the assembly and let them pray over him, having anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the exhausted one, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins they’ll be forgiven him.
Confess your offences one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The active fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man of like feelings to us and he prayed earnestly that it shouldn’t rain, and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months. And again he prayed and the heaven gave rain, and the earth caused its fruit to sprout up.
Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that he who brings back a sinner from the error of his way, will save a soul from death, and cover a great number of sins.
James’ Letter.
This translation,
from the Greek Text used for the ‘Authorized’ or ‘King James’ Version
Copyright © David Lawrie 1998
