Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you are involved in various trials,

Be assured that the testing of your faith leads to power of endurance.

But let this power have its full effect, so that you may be made complete, needing nothing.

But if any one of you lacks wisdom, he should pray to God, who gives to everyone generously and does not begrudge [the person who asks], and it will be given to him.

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

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.

So get rid of all uncleanness and all that remains of wickedness, and with a humble spirit receive the word [of God] which is implanted [actually rooted in your heart], which is able to save your souls.

for a bare auditor without practice is like one who sees his image form'd by a mirror:

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;

And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:

Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?

Don’t they blaspheme the noble name that was pronounced over you at your baptism?

So too, faith, if it does not have works [to back it up], is by itself dead [inoperative and ineffective].

you see then, that a man is accounted just for his actions, and not for his bare faith.

And the tongue is a fire; it is the power of evil placed in our bodies, making all the body unclean, putting the wheel of life on fire, and getting its fire from hell.

From out of the same mouth pour forth blessings and cursings! My brothers, this ought not to be so.

Does the fountain, out of the same opening, pour forth sweet and bitter?

Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

You covet things and yet cannot get them; you commit murder; you have passionate desires and yet cannot gain your end; you begin to fight and make war. You have not, because you do not pray;

or you pray and yet do not receive, because you pray wrongly, your object being to waste what you get on some pleasure or another.

But He gives us more and more grace [through the power of the Holy Spirit to defy sin and live an obedient life that reflects both our faith and our gratitude for our salvation]. Therefore, it says, “God is opposed to the proud and haughty, but [continually] gives [the gift of] grace to the humble [who turn away from self-righteousness].”

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you who are half-hearted towards God.

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy [the one God who has the absolute power of life and death]; but who are you to [hypocritically or self-righteously] pass judgment on your neighbor?

As for you, my brethren, bear your sufferings with constancy, till the advent of the Lord. the farmer, from the prospect of a golden crop, patiently expects the showers of the spring and the autumn.

Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Elijah was a man like affected as we, and with prayer he did pray -- not to rain, and it did not rain upon the land three years and six months;

and again he did pray, and the heaven did give rain, and the land did bring forth her fruit.