Exhortation To Practice Patience

Trials—the Test of a Faith in Progress.^{[a] 2} My brethren, consider it a cause of great joy whenever you endure various trials, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith will develop perseverance. ⁴ And let perseverance complete its work so that you may become perfect and complete, and not be deficient in any respect.

A Believer’s Prayer.^{[b] 5} If someone among you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without finding fault, and it will be given to him. ⁶ But he is to ask with faith, without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind. ⁷ A man like that should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord, ⁸ since he is of two minds and inconsistent in everything he does.

Rich and Poor.^{[c] 9} The brother who is in modest circumstances should take pride in being raised up. ¹⁰ Likewise, the one who is rich should glory in being brought low, for he will disappear like a flower of the field. ¹¹ Once the sun comes up with its scorching rays and withers the grass, its flower droops and its beauty vanishes. So too the rich man will fade away in the midst of his affairs.

¹² Trials and Temptations. Blessed is the man who perseveres when he is tempted, for when he has been proven, he will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.^[d]

^13 [e]While experiencing temptation, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. ¹⁴ Rather, temptation occurs when someone is attracted and seduced by his own desire. ¹⁵ Then the desire conceives and gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it reaches full growth, gives birth to death.

¹⁶ Light and Life.^[f] Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. ¹⁷ Every good act of giving and every perfect gift are from above, coming down from the Father of all light. With him there is no alteration or shadow caused by change. ¹⁸ By his own choice he gave us birth through the way of truth so that we may be a kind of firstfruits of all his creation.

Exhortation To Practice Faith

¹⁹ Living by God’s Word.^[g] Remember this, my beloved brethren: everyone should be quick to listen but slow to speak and slow to anger. ²⁰ For human anger does not bring about the righteousness of God. ²¹ Therefore, rid yourselves of everything sordid and of every wicked excess, and welcome in all humility the word that is implanted in you and is able to save your souls.

²² Be doers of the word and not just hearers who only deceive themselves. ²³ For anyone who listens to the word and fails to do it is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror. ²⁴ After seeing his reflection, he goes off and immediately forgets what he looked like. ²⁵ However, the one who looks intently at the perfect law of freedom and perseveres—not forgetting what he has heard but putting it into practice—will be blessed in everything he does.

²⁶ If anyone thinks that he is religious but does not restrain his tongue, he is deceiving himself, and his religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and undefiled is this: to come to the aid of orphans and widows in their hardships and to keep oneself untarnished by the world.

Chapter 2

Rich and Poor in the Christian Assembly.^{[h] 1} My brethren, since you are believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, you must never practice favoritism. ² Suppose a man wearing a gold ring and expensive clothes comes into your assembly as well as a poor man dressed in shabby clothes. ³ If you lavish special attention on the one wearing the expensive clothes and say, “Please sit in this good seat,” while to the poor man you say, “Stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor at my feet,” ⁴ have you not shown favoritism among yourselves and judged by wrongful standards?

⁵ Listen to me, my beloved brethren. Did not God choose those who are poor^[i] in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have humiliated the poor man. Furthermore, is it not the rich who oppress you? Are they not the ones who drag you into court? ⁷ Is it not they who blaspheme the noble name that was invoked over you?

⁸ You will be doing well if you truly observe the sovereign law enjoined in Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ⁹ However, if you show partiality, you are committing a sin and stand convicted by the law as lawbreakers. ¹⁰ For whoever observes the whole Law but trips up on a single point is held guilty of breaking all of it.

¹¹ The one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not kill.” Now if you do not commit adultery but you do kill, you have become a lawbreaker. ¹² Therefore, always speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of freedom. ¹³ For judgment will be without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy, but mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹⁴ True Faith Is Proved by Works.^[j] What good is it, my brethren, if someone claims to have faith but does not have good works? Can such faith save him? ^15 [k]Suppose a brother or sister is naked and lacks his or her daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to such a person, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat well,” but does not take care of that person’s physical needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself is dead if it does not have works.

¹⁸ But perhaps someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and by works I will show you my faith. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. You do well to assert that. But even the demons believe and tremble.

²⁰ You fool! Do you want proof that faith without works is futile? ²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² Thus, you can see that his faith and his works were active together; his faith was brought to completion by works.

²³ Thus, the words of Scripture were fulfilled that say, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. ²⁴ You can see, then, that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

²⁵ Likewise, Rahab the prostitute,^[l] was she not also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them away by a different road? ²⁶ For just as the body is dead without a spirit, so faith without works is also dead.

Exhortation To Practice Christian Living

Chapter 3

Avoid Faults of the Tongue.^{[m] 1} My brethren, not many of you should become teachers, for you know that we will face a more severe judgment. ² For all of us fall short in many ways. Anyone who never makes a mistake in speech has reached perfection^[n] and is able to control every part of his body.

³ When we put a bit into a horse’s mouth to make it obey us, we also guide its entire body. ⁴ Or think of ships. Even though they are large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder on whatever course the helmsman chooses. ⁵ In the same way, the tongue is a small member but its pretensions are great.

Consider how a small fire can set ablaze a great forest. ⁶ And the tongue is also a fire, a world of evil that infects the entire body. It sets afire the entire course of our existence and is itself set on fire by Gehenna.

⁷ For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by man, ⁸ but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.^[o]

¹⁰ Out of the same mouth flow blessings and curses. This should not be so, my brethren. ¹¹ Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? ¹² Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives or can a grapevine produce figs? Neither can salt water yield fresh water.

¹³ True Wisdom and Its Opposite.^[p] Who among you is wise and understanding? Prove by your good life that your works are done with the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if your hearts are filled with bitter envy and selfish ambition, do not be boastful in defiance of the truth.

¹⁵ Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. ¹⁶ For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disharmony and every type of wickedness.

¹⁷ However, the wisdom that comes from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, and considerate, full of mercy and good fruits, without any trace of partiality or hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who are peacemakers.

Chapter 4

The Need To Control Passions.^{[q] 1} What is the source of these conflicts and quarrels among you? Are they not the result of your passions^[r] that are at war within you? ² You want something that you cannot have, so you commit murder. And you covet something but cannot obtain it, so you engage in quarrels and fights. You do not have because you do not ask. ³ When you ask, you do not get what you want because you do not ask for it with the proper motives, seeking rather to indulge your passions.

⁴ Adulterers! Do you not know that love of the world results in enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you suppose that it is without reason that Scripture says, “He yearns jealously for the Spirit that he sent to live in us”?^{[s] 6} But he has bestowed an even stronger grace. Therefore, it says,

⁷ Hence, be subject to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you waverers. ⁹ Be sorrowful, lament, and weep. Let your laughter turn to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

¹¹ Do Not Judge Others.^[t] Do not slander one another, my brethren. Whoever speaks ill of a brother or passes judgment on a brother speaks ill of the Law and passes judgment on the Law. But if you judge the Law, you are not keeping it but passing judgment upon it. ¹² There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save or to destroy. Who then are you to pass judgment on a neighbor?