So practice confessing your sins to one another, and praying for one another, that you may be cured. An upright man's prayer, when it keeps at work, is very powerful.

You must consider it the purest joy, my brothers, when you are involved in various trials,

But if any one of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask God who generously gives to everyone and never reproaches one with its lack, and it will be given to him.

Is anyone sick among you? He should call in the elders of the church, and they should pray over him, and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord,

Every good gift and every perfect boon is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variation or changing shadow.

A religious worship that is pure and stainless in the sight of God the Father is this: To look after orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep one's own self unstained by the world.

My brothers, what good is there in a man's saying that he has faith, if he has no good deeds to prove it? Such faith cannot save him, can it?

Keep on obeying this message; do not merely listen to it, and so deceive yourselves.

So then, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will fly from you.

and you pay special attention to the man who wears the fine clothes, and say to him, "Sit here in this fine place," and say to the poor man, "Stand up, or sit there on the floor at my feet,"

You have condemned and murdered the upright man; he offers no resistance.

But He gives a greater spiritual blessing. He says, "God opposes haughty people but blesses humble people."

You faithless wives! Do you not know that the friendship of the world means enmity with God? So whoever wants to be a friend to the world puts himself down as an enemy to God.

You must understand this, my dearly loved brothers. Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to get angry;

No one must say, when he is tempted to do evil, "I have a temptation from God to do evil," for God cannot be tempted to do evil, and He never tempts anyone to do so.

Blessed is the person who endures trial, for when he stands the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him.

Do you believe in one God? Very well; the demons, too, believe that, and shudder.

Is any one of you suffering ill-treatment? He should keep on praying. Is anyone in a happy mood? He should keep on singing praise to God.

Such a man, indeed, a person with two minds,

Many of you, my brothers, should avoid becoming teachers, because you know that we teachers are going to be judged with stricter judgment than other people.

For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass, and its flowers wither, and its beauty fades away; so will rich men fade away in their pursuits.

For whoever obeys the whole law, except to slip in a single instance, is guilty of breaking it all.

My brothers, stop trying to maintain your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious presence of God on earth, along with acts of partiality to certain ones.

and the rich brother rejoice in his being on a level with the poor, because the rich will fade away like the flower of the grass.

What causes wars and quarrels among you? Is it not your different desires which are ever at war within your bodies? You desire things and cannot have them, and so you commit murder.

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Get your hands clean, you sinners. Get your hearts purified, you double-minded.

James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, sends greetings to the twelve tribes that are scattered over the world.

Look at ships, too; though great and driven by violent winds, they are steered with a tiny rudder wherever the pilot pleases.

So faith by itself, if it has no deeds to back it up, is dead.

So when a man knows what is right but does not do it, he is guilty of sin.

So be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer keeps on waiting and waiting for the precious crop from his land; how he keeps up his patience over it until he gets the early and late rains,

But anyone is tempted to do evil when he is allured by his own evil desire and enticed by a bait.

Who among you is wise and intelligent? Let him show by his noble living that his good deeds are done in humility, which wisdom prompts.

In accordance with His will He made us His children by the message of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.

Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without good deeds is dead.

Come now, you rich people, weep aloud and howl over the miseries that are sure to overtake you.

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we are going to such and such a city and stay a year, go into business and make money,"

do you not make improper distinctions among yourselves and prove to be critics with evil motives?

So strip yourselves of everything impure and all the evils prevailing around you, and in humble spirit welcome the message which when rooted in your hearts is able to save your souls.

although you do not have the slightest knowledge of tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? It is really nothing but a mist which appears for a little while and then disappears.

You see that a man is shown to be upright by his good deeds, and not merely by his faith.

But he must ask in faith, without a doubt, for the man who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is whirled and swayed by the wind.

But if you really observe the law of the King in accordance with the Scripture, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself," you are doing right;

The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of compassion and good deeds, free from doubts and insincerity.

But the man who looks at the flawless law that makes men free, and keeps on looking, proving himself to be, not a forgetful hearer but an actual doer of what it requires, will be blessed in what he does.

You covet things, but cannot acquire them, and so you quarrel and fight. You do not have them, because you do not ask for them.

If anyone thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives himself, his religious worship is worthless.

You ask and fail to get them, because you ask with evil, selfish motives, to spend them on your pleasures.

But someone may say, "You have faith, and I have good deeds. Show me your faith without any good deeds, but I will show you mine by my good deeds."

My brothers, if any one of you has wandered away from the truth, and someone brings him back,

Listen, my dearly loved brothers. Has not God chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and to possess the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

Above all, my brothers, stop swearing, either by heaven or by the earth, or by anything else. Let your "Yes" mean Yes, and your "No," No, so as to keep from falling under condemnation.

But, O senseless man, are you willing to learn that faith without good deeds is worthless?

Stop talking against one another, brothers. Whoever is in the habit of talking against a brother or of criticizing his brother is criticizing and condemning the law. But if you are in the habit of criticizing the law, you are not a practicer but a critic of the law.

and the prayer that is offered in faith will save the sick man; the Lord will raise him to health, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

For we all make many a slip. If anyone never slips in speech, he is a man of maturity; he can control his whole body too.

and so the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him for uprightness, and he was called God's friend."

And the tongue is a fire, and takes its place among the parts of our bodies as a world of evil; it soils the whole body and sets on fire the circle of man's nature, and itself is set on fire by hell.

You must be patient, too; you must put iron into your hearts, because the coming of the Lord is close at hand.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you high.

With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in God's likeness.

If some brother or sister is thinly clad and has no food for the day,

Be miserable, mourn ... and weep aloud. Let your laughter be turned to grief and your joy to gloom.

Then evil desire conceives and gives birth to sin, and when sin is completed, it brings forth death.

for you surely know that what is genuine in your faith produces the patient mind that endures;

Elijah was a man with feelings just like ours, and yet he earnestly prayed for it not to rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.

See how we call those who thus endured happy! You have heard how patiently Job endured and have seen how the Lord finally blessed him, because the Lord is tenderhearted and merciful.

for he looks and then goes off and at once forgets how he looked.

you may be sure that whoever brings a sinner back from his evil ways will save the man's soul from death, and cover up a multitude of sins.

There is but one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who has the power to save and to destroy; then who are you that you presume to judge your brother?

Because if anyone merely listens to the message without obeying it, he is like a man who looks in a mirror at his own face,

but you must let your endurance come to its perfect product, so that you may be fully developed and perfectly equipped, without any defects.

But you, in contrast, have humiliated the poor man. Are not the rich men those who oppress you and drag you to court?

Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord is willing, we shall live and do this or that."

But, as it is, you boast of your proud pretensions. All such boasting is wicked.

Are not they the ones who scoff at the beautiful name you bear?

For every kind of beasts and birds, of reptiles and sea animals, can be, or have been, tamed by man;

but if you show partiality, you are committing sin, because you are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.

A fig tree, my brothers, cannot bear olives, or a grape-vine figs, can it? And a salt spring cannot furnish fresh water.

Out of the same mouth flow blessing and cursing! It ought not to be like this, my brothers.

For He who said, "You must not commit adultery," also said, "You must not commit murder." Now if you do not commit adultery but you do commit murder, you are just the same a lawbreaker.

A fountain cannot pour from the same opening fresh and brackish water, can it?

For if a man with a gold ring, dressed in fine clothes, comes to your meeting, and at the same time a poor man clad in dirty clothes,

Your wealth has rotted, your clothes are moth-eaten,

Then again he prayed, and the heavens yielded rain and the earth produced its crops.

your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will testify against you and devour your flesh like fire. You have stored up these things for the last days.

Here on earth you have lived in luxury and self-indulgence; you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter.

If we put bridles into horses' mouths to make them obey us, we can guide their whole bodies, too.

Was not our forefather Abraham shown to be upright by his good deeds, namely, by offering Isaac his son upon the altar?

For merciless judgment will be the portion of the merciless man; yet mercy will triumph over judgment.

So the tongue, too, is a little organ but can boast of great achievements. See how a spark, ever so tiny, can set a vast forest on fire!

But if you cherish bitter jealousy and rivalry in your hearts, stop being proud of it and stop being false to the standard of truth.

For wherever jealousy and rivalry exist, there will be confusion and all sorts of evil practices.

Let the poor brother of lowly station rejoice in his exalted station as a Christian,

See, the wages that you have kept back from the laborers who reaped your fields are crying aloud, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

(1:7) unreliable in every step he takes, must not expect to get anything from the Lord.

Was not even Rahab the prostitute shown to be upright by her good deeds, namely, by entertaining the scouts and sending them off by a different road?

You must continue talking and acting like people who are to be judged by the law that treats them as free.

As an example of ill-treatment and patience, brothers, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord.

but the tongue no human being can tame. It is an evil incapable of being quieted, full of deadly poison.

Or, do you think that the Scripture means nothing when it says, "He jealously yearns for the Spirit that He causes to dwell in your hearts"?

You must avoid being misled, my dearly loved brothers.

This is not the kind of wisdom that comes down from above; no, it is earthly, human, demoniacal.

You see that faith cooperated with his good deeds, and by his good deeds faith was made complete;

Stop muttering against one another, brothers, so as to keep from being judged yourselves. Look! The Judge is standing at the very door.

for a man's anger does not produce the uprightness that God requires.

The harvest of uprightness is grown from the seed of peace by those who are peacemakers.

and one of you says to him, "Blessings on you, keep warm, eat until you have aplenty," without giving him the things that are needed for the body, what good does it do?