[This letter is from] James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, [who sends] greetings to the twelve tribes which are scattered throughout the world. [Note: This refers to Christians, probably of Jewish descent].

It was God's purpose to bring us into being [spiritually] by the message of truth, so that we could become a kind of "firstfruits" of those He created. [Note: "Firstfruits" here suggests either that Christians are the best of all of God's creatures (Num. 18:12), or that they were the first to be converted, with many more to come].

are you not making class distinctions among yourselves and judging [people] from evil motives?

Listen, my dearly loved brothers; did not God choose those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be wealthy in faith and to inherit the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

But you people have dishonored the poor person. Are not rich people the ones who oppress you and drag you to court?

Do they not speak against the honorable name by which you are called? [i.e., the name "Christ" or "Christian"].

However, you are doing well if you fulfill [i.e., obey] the royal law found in the Scriptures [Lev. 19:18], "You should love your neighbor the same way that you love yourself."

But if you show favoritism toward [certain] persons, you are committing a sin and are convicted by the law [of God] as lawbreakers.

For God, who said [through Moses, Ex. 20:13f], "You must not be sexually unfaithful to your mate," also said, "You must not murder." Now if you are sexually faithful to your mate and yet murder [someone], you have become a lawbreaker.

Look, even though ships are huge and are driven by strong winds, still their direction can be governed by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires to sail.

For all kinds of animals and birds and reptiles and ocean creatures are being subdued and have been subdued by mankind,

We praise the Lord and Father with it, and [also] curse men who are created in God's likeness with it.

[People who are] peacemakers sow [seeds of] peace and it produces a crop of righteousness [in the lives of others].

You people desire something and yet do not have it, [so] you murder [to get it]. You are envious [of what someone has] and [yet] are not able to obtain it, [so] you fight and quarrel [over it]. You do not have [what you want] because you do not ask [God for it].

But He gives [us] more unearned favor [i.e., to overcome the world]. Therefore, the Scripture says [Prov. 3:34], "God opposes proud people, but gives unearned favor to those who are humble."

Do not slander one another, brothers, [for] the person who speaks against his brother, or judges him, is [guilty of] speaking against the law [of God]. But when you judge the law, you are not obeying it but acting as its judge.

There is only One Lawgiver and Judge [i.e., God or Christ]. It is He who is able to save and destroy [people]. So, who [do you think] you are, judging your neighbor?

Come on now, you people who are saying, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this [or that] city, spend a year there, do business and make some money."

[For actually] you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. What is your life? For you are [like] a mist that appears briefly and then vanishes.

But, as it is, you people are boasting in your arrogance [and] all such boasting is evil.

Come on now, you rich people, cry and wail over the miseries that are coming upon you.

Look, the wages you have fraudulently refused to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out [against you]. And the cries of these harvest hands have reached the ears of the Lord of [heavenly] armies [i.e., Almighty God].