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The General Epistle of

ST. JAMES

Chapter 1

¹James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes that are in the Diaspora, Greetings. ²Consider it pure joy, my brethren, when you fall into all sorts of trials, ³because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴But you must allow endurance its finished job to the end so you will be complete and faultless, deficient in nothing.

⁵And if any of you lacks wisdom, he should request it from God, who gives to everyone cheerfully without complication or lecturing, and it will be given to him. ⁶Only he must ask with faith, not doubting at all. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven back and forth by the wind. ⁷That kind of person should most certainly stop thinking he will receive anything from the Lord. ⁸A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

⁹And the brother of the lower class should boast about his lifting up, ¹⁰and the rich one about his lowering, how like a flower of the grass he will drop. ¹¹For the sun has come up, with scorching heat to dry the grass, and the flower of it has fallen off, and the glory of its face has perished. So also the rich in their goings will be faded in importance.

¹²The man is blessed who withstands temptation, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. ¹³No one who is being tempted should say, "I am being tempted by God." For God is unskilled in the bad and he does not tempt anyone. ¹⁴Rather each person is tempted through his own desires, which get lured out and enticed; ¹⁵and then after the desire is fertilized, it gives birth to a sin, and the sin when finished developing produces death. ¹⁶Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

¹⁷All good giving, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights, with whom there is no varying or shadow from turning. ¹⁸According to his will he gave birth to us through the word of truth, planning for us to be of his creations a kind of firstfruits.

¹⁹You know this, my beloved brethren, but all persons should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. ²⁰For the anger of a man does not accomplish the righteousness of God. ²¹Therefore, having put away all the moral uncleanness and bad things that are prevalent, you must welcome with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. ²²Only be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. ²³For if someone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who was contemplating his born face in the mirror: ²⁴for that he took note of himself, and went away, and immediately forgot what kind of man he was. ²⁵But he who focuses intently into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and stays with it, not being a forgetful hearer but a doer of the deed, this person will be blessed in his deed that he will do.

²⁶If anyone considers himself to be religious but does not bridle his tongue, he is fooling his own heart. Such religion is worthless. ²⁷Here is a religiousness from our God and Father that is pure and simple: to look after the orphan and the widow during their hard times, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Chapter 2

¹My brethren, you should not hold the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with partiality to personages. ²For if a man with gold rings on his fingers enters your meeting, dressed in bright clothes, and a poor man also enters, dressed in dirty clothes, ³and you look over the one wearing the bright clothes and say, "You take this good seat here," and to the poor one you say, "You stand there," or, "Sit here below my footstool," ⁴are you not then discriminating between each other, and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵Listen my beloved brethren: has not God chosen those who are poor to the world to be rich in faith and called for the kingdom he has prepared for those who love him? ⁶You though have devalued the poor. Is it not the rich who trouble you, and they who summon you into courts? ⁷Do they not defame the good name by which you are known? ⁸If you really keep the royal law according to that scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well. ⁹But if you show partiality to personages, you are committing a sin, convicted by that law as violators. ¹⁰Now whoever keeps the whole rest of the law, and only violates in one matter, he has become guilty of all of it. ¹¹For that which says "Do not commit adultery" also says "Do not commit murder." So if you do not commit adultery, but you commit murder, you have become a violator of the law. ¹²Speak this way and act this way: as if you are about to be judged according to the law of liberty. ¹³For judgment without mercy comes to those who act without mercy. Triumphant though is mercy over judgment.

¹⁴What good is it, my brethren, when someone claims to have faith, but he has no works? Is such a faith really able to save him? ¹⁵If a brother or sister has no coat and they are lacking daily food, ¹⁶and one of you says to them, "Go with peace, be warmed and fed," but you don't give to them the basic needs of the body, what good is it? ¹⁷So this kind of faith by itself, when not having works, is dead. ¹⁸Someone will indeed say, "You have faith, and I have works. Demonstrate to me that faith of yours without works, and I will demonstrate faith to you by means of my works." ¹⁹You believe that there is only one God. You are doing well. The demons also believe that, and tremble. ²⁰But are you convinced, foolish person, that faith without works is useless? ²¹Our father Abraham, was he not justified by means of works, when he offered his son Isaac up on the altar? ²²See how faith was working together with his works, and through his works his faith was made complete? ²³Thus also was completed the scripture which says, "And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." And he was called a friend of God. ²⁴You should see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵And in the same way Rahab the prostitute, was she not justified also by works, when she sheltered the messengers and sent them out by another way? ²⁶For just as a body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

Chapter 3

¹Not many should become teachers, my brethren, knowing we will get ourselves more judgment. ²For we all stumble on many occasions. If someone does not stumble in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole rest of his body. ³Now if we place bits in the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we are also steering the whole rest of their body. ⁴And consider ships. As large as they are and driven by fierce winds, they are turned around by a small rudder wherever the will of the one steering it wishes. ⁵In the same way also, our tongue is a small member, and boasts great feats. See how a small flame sets ablaze such a large forest. ⁶The tongue also is a flame, a world of damage. The tongue is situated among our members as contaminator of the entire body, and sets on fire the circular racetrack of our existence, and is itself set on fire by Gehenna. ⁷Indeed every race of beast, even of birds, reptiles and marine life, is being tamed or has been tamed by the human race. ⁸But no one can tame the tongue. It is a volatile menace, replete with fatal venom. ⁹With it we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings created in the image of God. ¹⁰Out of the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. ¹¹Does a spring from the same opening well up both sweet water and bitter? ¹²It is not possible, my brethren, for a fig tree to produce olives, or a grapevine figs; neither for a bitter spring to produce water that is sweet.

¹³Who is wise and learned among you? Let him show his works from good conduct: with the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴But if you have bitter jealousy and rivalry in your hearts, do not make yourselves superior to the truth and lie against it. ¹⁵This wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, natural, of the devil. ¹⁶For where there is jealousy and rivalry, there is disorder and every thing that is evil. ¹⁷But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, persuadable, replete with compassion and other good fruits, impartial, sincere. ¹⁸And a harvest of justice is planted, with peace, for those who make peace.

Chapter 4

¹Where do battles and quarrels between you come from? Is it not from this: your pleasures that are making war inside your members? ²You covet, yet you do not have. You kill and strive for, and cannot obtain. You keep on quarreling and battling. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³And you ask, and do not receive, because you ask badly, so you may spend it in your pleasures. ⁴You adulteresses, do you not know that love of the world means the enmity of God? Whoever chooses to be a friend of the world therefore is rendered an enemy of God. ⁵Or do you think the scripture says for no reason, "The Spirit whom God made to dwell in us craves possession of us, tending toward jealousy"? ⁶But he gives more grace. Accordingly it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." ⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. Fight against the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸Move closer to God, and he will move closer to you. Cleanse your hands, O sinners, and purify your hearts, O double-minded. ⁹Be distressed and mourn and wail. Change your laughter into lamentation, and your joy into gloom. ¹⁰Lower yourselves down before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

¹¹Do not denigrate each other, brethren. Someone who denigrates a brother or condemns his brother is denigrating the law and condemning the law. Now if you are condemning the law, you are not being a doer of the law, but a judge instead. ¹²There is only one lawmaker and judge who is able to save or to damn. Who then are you, condemning your neighbor?

¹³Come now, you who say, "We will travel today and tomorrow to that particular city, and spend a year there, and do business and make a profit," ¹⁴you who have no solid knowledge of tomorrow. What is your life? You are a vapor that appears a little while and then is gone. ¹⁵The thing for you to say instead is, "If the Lord wills, we will even be alive and do this or that." ¹⁶But as it is you are vaunting your own selves with your presumptuous words. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷So, he who has learned the good to do and does not do it, for him it is sin.

Chapter 5

¹Come now you wealthy people, weep with loud wailing over the hard times which are coming for you. ²Your wealth is become corrupt, and your clothes are moth-eaten. ³Your gold and silver are tarnished, and their corrosion will be a testimony to you, and eat your bodies like fire. You have stored it up in the last days. ⁴Behold, the wage is crying out, which was for the laborers who sickled your fields, which you deprived them of. And the cries of those who worked the harvest have gone into the ears of Yahweh Sabaoth. ⁵You have lived in luxury and excessive comfort on the earth. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. ⁶You have passed sentence on, you have killed the righteous. He does not resist you.

⁷Patiently endure therefore brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer expects the valuable fruit of the earth, waiting patiently on it until it gets the early and the latter rain. ⁸You must be patient as well, make your hearts steadfast, because the coming of the Lord is approaching. ⁹Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be judged. Behold, the judge stands almost at the door. ¹⁰Receive for use as a pattern, brethren, the suffering of ill treatment and the patience of the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹Behold we consider fortunate those who patiently endure. You have heard about the patience of Job, and seen the Lord's result, how the Lord is full of compassion and merciful.

¹²But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven, or by the earth, or any other oath. Rather, your "Yes" should be "Yes" and your "No" be "No," or you may fall under judgment. ¹³Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises. ¹⁴Is anyone among you ill? He should call the elders of the church to him, and they should pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer of faith will heal the ailing, and the Lord will raise him. And if he has committed sin, it will be forgiven him. ¹⁶Confess your sins then one to another, and pray for one another, so you may be healed. The fully operating prayer of a righteous person is able to accomplish much. ¹⁷Elijah was a human, subject to the same frailties as we are. And he prayed the prayer for it not to rain, and no rain fell on the land for a period of three years and six months. ¹⁸And he prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the land sprouted up its fruit.

¹⁹My brethren, if any among you wanders away from the truth and someone turns him back around, ²⁰he should know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

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