sure that the sterling temper of your faith produces endurance;

only, let your endurance be a finished product, so that you may be finished and complete, with never a defect.

that man need not imagine he will get anything from God,

double-minded creature that he is, wavering at every turn.

It was his own will that we should be born by the Word of the truth, to be a kind of firstfruits among his creatures.

Be sure of that, my beloved brothers. Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to talk, slow to be angry ??20 for human anger does not promote divine righteousness;

Whereas he who gazes into the faultless law of freedom and remains in that position, proving himself to be no forgetful listener but an active agent, he will be blessed in his activity.

are you not drawing distinctions in your own minds and proving that you judge people with partiality?

if any of you says to them, "Depart in peace! Get warm, get food," without supplying their bodily needs, what use is that?

But will you understand, you senseless fellow, that faith without deeds is dead?

You observe it is by what he does that a man is justified, not simply by what he believes.

no man can tame the tongue ??plague of disorder that it is, full of deadly venom!

But if you are cherishing bitter jealousy and rivalry in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on that ??and be false to the truth.

That is not the wisdom which comes down from above, it is an earthly wisdom, sensuous, devilish;

Where do conflicts, where do wrangles come from, in your midst? Is it not from these passions of yours that war among your members?

(Wanton creatures! do you not know that the world's friendship means enmity to God? Whoever, then, chooses to be the world's friend, turns enemy to God.

You ought rather to say, "If the Lord will, we shall live to do this or that."

[follows 2:26] Whoever, then, knows what is right to do and does not do it, that is a sin for him.

See, we call the stedfast happy; you have heard of the stedfastness of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord with him, seen that the Lord is very compassionate and pitiful.

So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed; the prayers of the righteous have a powerful effect.

Elijah was a man with a nature just like our own; but he offered prayer that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain;

understand that he who brings a sinner back from the error of his way saves his soul from death and hides a host of sins.