^{1 Ref} James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are of the Dispersion, greeting.

^{2 Ref} Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations;

^{3 Ref} Knowing that the proving of your faith worketh patience.

^{4 Ref} And let patience have `its' perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing.

^{5 Ref} But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

^{6 Ref} But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.

^{7 Ref} For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord;

^{8 Ref} a doubleminded man, unstable in all his ways.

^{9 Ref} But let the brother of low degree glory in his high estate:

^{10 Ref} and the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

^{11 Ref} For the sun ariseth with the scorching wind, and 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 goings.

^{12 Ref} Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which `the Lord' promised to them that love him.

^{13 Ref} Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man:

^{14 Ref} but each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.

^{15 Ref} Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is fullgrown, bringeth forth death.

^{16 Ref} Be not deceived, my beloved brethren.

^{17 Ref} Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning.

^{18 Ref} Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

^{19 Ref} Ye know `this', my beloved brethren. But let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

^{20 Ref} for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

^{21 Ref} Wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

^{22 Ref} But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.

^{23 Ref} For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror:

^{24 Ref} for he beholdeth himself, and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

^{25 Ref} But he that looketh into the perfect law, the `law' of liberty, and `so' continueth, being not a hearer that forgetteth but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing.

^{26 Ref} If any man thinketh himself to be religious, while he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart, this man's religion is vain.

^{27 Ref} Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, `and' to keep oneself unspotted from the world.