So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be cured. An upright man can do a great deal by prayer when he tries.

You must find the greatest joy, my brothers, in being involved in various trials,

If any one of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to everyone, and does not reproach one with it afterward, and he will give it to him.

If any one is sick, he should call in the elders of the church and have them pray over him, and pour oil on him in the name of the Lord,

Every good gift and every perfect present is from heaven, and comes down from the Father of the heavenly lights, about whom there is no variation of changing shadow.

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

My brothers, what is the good of a man's saying he has faith, if he has no good deeds to show? Can faith save him?

Obey the message; do not merely listen to it, and deceive yourselves.

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

and you pay attention to the man in the fine clothes and say to him, "Sit here; this is a good place!" and say to the poor man, "Stand up, or sit on the floor at my feet,"

You have condemned and murdered the upright. Will he make no resistance?

But he gives all the greater blessing. As the Scripture says, "God opposes haughty persons, but he blesses humble-minded ones."

You renegades! Do you not know that the friendship of the world means enmity with God? So whoever wishes to be the world's friend declares himself God's enemy.

You must understand this, my dear brothers. Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to be angry,

No one should think when he is tempted that his temptation comes from God, for God is incapable of being tempted by what is evil, and he does not tempt anyone.

Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he stands the test, he will be given the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

Do you believe in one God? Very well! So do the demons, and they shudder.

If any one of you is in trouble, he should pray. If any one is in good spirits, he should sing a hymn.

Such a man must not expect to get anything from the Lord??8 an irresolute person like him, who is uncertain about everything he does.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass, and the flowers wither, and all their beauty is gone. That is the way rich men will fade and die in the midst of their pursuits.

For anyone who obeys the whole of the Law but makes one single slip is guilty of breaking it all.

My brothers, do you try to combine faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with acts of partiality?

but one who is rich ought to rejoice at being reduced in circumstances, for the rich will disappear like the wild flowers.

What causes wars and fights among you? Is it not your cravings, which are at war within your bodies?

Approach God, and he will approach you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Make your hearts pure, you doubters!

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

Even ships, great as they are, and driven by strong winds, are steered with a very small rudder wherever the pilot pleases.

So faith by itself, if it has no good deeds to show, is dead.

So when a man knows what is right and fails to do it, he is guilty of sin.

So be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer has to wait for the precious crop from the ground, and be patient with it, until it gets the early and the late rains.

When anyone is tempted, it is by his own desire that he is enticed and allured.

What wise, intelligent man is there among you? Let him show by his good life that what he does is done in the humility of wisdom.

Of his own accord he brought us into being through the message of truth, so that we might be a kind of first-fruits among his creatures.

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

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

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

have you not wavered and shown that your judgments are guided by base motives?

So strip yourselves of everything that soils you, and of every evil growth, and in a humble spirit let the message that has the power to save your souls be planted in your hearts.

when you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow! You are just a mist, which appears for a little while and then disappears.

You see a man is made upright by his good deeds and not simply by having faith.

But he must ask with faith, and without any doubt, for the man who doubts is like the billowing sea, driven and blown about by the wind.

If you really obey the supreme law where the Scripture says, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself," you are doing right,

The wisdom that is from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, considerate, willing to yield, full of compassion and good deeds, whole-hearted, straightforward.

But whoever looks at the faultless law that makes men free and keeps looking, so that he does not just listen and forget, but obeys and acts upon it, will be blessed in what he does.

You crave things, and cannot have them, and so you commit murder. You covet things, and cannot get them, and so you quarrel and fight. You do not have things because you do not ask for them.

If anyone thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives himself, his religious observances are of no account.

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

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

My brothers, if any one of you is led astray from the truth, and someone brings him back,

Listen, my dear brothers. Has not God chosen the world's poor to be rich in faith, and to possess the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?

Above all, my brothers, do not swear an oath, either by heaven or by the earth, or by anything else; let your "Yes" be a plain Yes, and your "No" a plain No, or you will fall under condemnation.

But do you want proof, my senseless friend, that faith without good deeds amounts to nothing?

Do not talk against one another, brothers. Whoever talks against a brother or condemns his brother talks against the Law, and condemns the Law. But if you condemn the Law you are not an observer of the Law but its judge.

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

For we all make many mistakes. Anyone who never makes a mistake in what he says has a character that is fully developed and is able to control his whole body as well.

and so the Scripture came true that says, "Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as uprightness, and he was called God's friend."

And the tongue is a fire, a world of wrong the tongue proves in our bodies, soiling the whole body and setting fire to the whole round of nature, and set on fire itself by hell.

You must have patience too; you must keep up your courage, for the coming of the Lord is close at hand.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will raise you up

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

If some brother or sister has no clothes and has not food enough for a day,

Be miserable, grieve, and weep aloud! Turn your laughter into grief and your happiness into gloom.

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

for you know that the testing of your faith leads to steadfastness,

Elijah was a man like us, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and for three years and six months there was no rain in the land.

Why, we call those who showed such endurance happy! You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen what the Lord brought out of it, for the Lord is very kind and merciful.

and then goes off and immediately forgets what he looked like.

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

There is only one lawgiver and judge??e who has the power to save and to destroy; who are you, to judge your neighbor?

For anyone who merely listens to the message without obeying it is like a man who looks in a mirror at the face that nature gave him,

and steadfastness must have full play, so that you may be fully and perfectly developed without any defects.

But you humiliate the poor. Are not the rich your oppressors? Is it not they who drag you into court?

This, instead of saying, "If it is the Lord's will, we shall live to do this or that."

But, as it is, you pride yourselves on your pretensions. All such pride is wrong.

Is it not they who slander the noble name you bear?

For every kind of animal and bird, reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by man,

but if you show partiality, you are committing a sin, and stand convicted before the Law as lawbreakers.

Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers, or a grape vine figs? A salt spring cannot give fresh water.

Blessing and cursing issue from the same mouth! This is not right, my brothers.

For he who said, "You must not commit adultery," said also, "You must not commit murder." Now if you abstain from adultery, but commit murder, you are still a violator of the Law.

Does a spring pour forth fresh and brackish water from the same crevice?

For if a finely dressed man with a gold ring comes into a meeting, and a poor man in shabby clothes comes in also,

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

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

your gold and silver are rusted, and their rust will testify against you and eat into your very flesh, for you have stored up fire for the last days.

You have lived luxuriously and voluptuously here on earth; 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.

Was not our forefather Abraham made upright for his good deeds, for offering his son Isaac on the altar?

For the merciless will be mercilessly judged; but mercy will triumph over judgment.

So the tongue is a little organ and yet very boastful. What a great forest a spark will set on fire!

But if you cherish bitter feelings of jealousy and rivalry in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on it and thus belie the truth.

For wherever jealousy and rivalry exist, there will be confusion and every low action.

A brother of low position ought to be proud of his eminence,

Why, the wages you have withheld from the laborers who have reaped your harvests cry aloud, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

Was not even Rahab the prostitute made upright for her good deeds, in entertaining the scouts and sending them off by a different road?

You must talk and act like men who expect to be judged by the law that treats men as free.

As an example, brothers, of ill-treatment patiently endured, take the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord.

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

Do you suppose the Scripture means nothing when it says, "He yearns jealously over the Spirit he has put in our hearts?"

Do not be misled, my dear brothers.

Such wisdom does not come from above. It is earthly, animal, demon-like.

You see that in his case faith and good deeds worked together; faith found its highest expression in good deeds,

Do not complain of one another, brothers, or you will be judged. The judge is standing right at the door!

for men's anger does not produce the uprightness God wishes.

The harvest uprightness yields must be sown in peace, by peacemakers.

and one of you says to them, "Goodbye, keep warm and have plenty to eat," without giving them the necessaries of life, what good does it do?