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JAMES |
Chapter 1
JAM 1:1
James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus
Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed
abroad, greetings.
JAM 1:2 Consider it all joy, my brethren,
when you encounter various trials,
JAM 1:3 knowing that the testing of your
faith produces endurance.
JAM 1:4 And let endurance have its perfect
result, that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking in nothing.
JAM 1:5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let
him ask of God, who gives to all men generously
and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
JAM 1:6 But let him ask in faith without
any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the
surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
JAM 1:7 For let not that man expect that he
will receive anything from the Lord,
JAM 1:8 being a double-minded man, unstable
in all his ways.
JAM 1:9 But let the brother of humble
circumstances glory in his high position;
JAM 1:10 and let the rich man glory in his
humiliation, because like flowering grass he will
pass away.
JAM 1:11 For the sun rises with a scorching
wind, and withers the grass; and its flower falls
off, and the beauty of its appearance is
destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his
pursuits will fade away.
JAM 1:12 Blessed is a man who perseveres
under trial; for once he has been approved, he
will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has
promised to those who love Him.
JAM 1:13 Let no one say when he is tempted,
"I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be
tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt
anyone.
JAM 1:14 But each one is tempted when he is
carried away and enticed by his own lust.
JAM 1:15 Then when lust has conceived, it
gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished,
it brings forth death.
JAM 1:16 Do not be deceived, my beloved
brethren.
JAM 1:17 Every good thing bestowed and
every perfect gift is from above, coming down from
the Father of lights, with whom there is no
variation, or shifting shadow.
JAM 1:18 In the exercise of His will He
brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we
might be, as it were, the first fruits among His
creatures.
JAM 1:19 This you know, my beloved
brethren. But let everyone be quick to hear, slow
to speak and slow to anger;
JAM 1:20 for the anger of man does not
achieve the righteousness of God.
JAM 1:21 Therefore putting aside all
filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in
humility receive the word implanted, which is able
to save your souls.
JAM 1:22 But prove yourselves doers of the
word, and not merely hearers who delude
themselves.
JAM 1:23 For if anyone is a hearer of the
word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at
his natural face in a mirror;
JAM 1:24 for once he has looked at himself
and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what
kind of person he was.
JAM 1:25 But one who looks intently at the
perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it,
not having become a forgetful hearer but an
effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what
he does.
JAM 1:26 If anyone thinks himself to be
religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but
deceives his own heart, this man's religion is
worthless.
JAM 1:27 This is pure and undefiled
religion in the sight of our God and Father, to
visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to
keep oneself unstained by the world.
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Chapter 2
JAM 2:1
My brethren, do not hold your faith in our
glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of
personal favoritism.
JAM 2:2 For if a man comes into your
assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine
clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in
dirty clothes,
JAM 2:3 and you pay special attention to
the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say,
"You sit here in a good place," and you say to the
poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my
footstool,"
JAM 2:4 have you not made distinctions
among yourselves, and become judges with evil
motives?
JAM 2:5 Listen, my beloved brethren: did
not God choose the poor of this world to be rich
in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He
promised to those who love Him?
JAM 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor
man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and
personally drag you into court?
JAM 2:7 Do they not blaspheme the fair name
by which you have been called?
JAM 2:8 If, however, you are fulfilling the
royal law, according to the Scripture, "You shall
love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing
well.
JAM 2:9 But if you show partiality, you are
committing sin and are convicted by the law as
transgressors.
JAM 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law
and yet stumbles in one point, he has become
guilty of all.
JAM 2:11 For He who said, "Do not commit
adultery," also said, "Do not commit murder." Now
if you do not commit adultery, but do commit
murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
JAM 2:12 So speak and so act, as those who
are to be judged by the law of liberty.
JAM 2:13 For judgment will be merciless to
one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over
judgment.
JAM 2:14 What use is it, my brethren, if a
man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can
that faith save him?
JAM 2:15 If a brother or sister is without
clothing and in need of daily food,
JAM 2:16 and one of you says to them, "Go
in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do
not give them what is necessary for their body,
what use is that?
JAM 2:17 Even so faith, if it has no works,
is dead, being by itself.
JAM 2:18 But someone may well say, "You
have faith, and I have works; show me your faith
without the works, and I will show you my faith by
my works."
JAM 2:19 You believe that God is one. You
do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
JAM 2:20 But are you willing to recognize,
you foolish fellow, that faith without works is
useless?
JAM 2:21 Was not Abraham our father
justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his
son on the altar?
JAM 2:22 You see that faith was working
with his works, and as a result of the works,
faith was perfected;
JAM 2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled
which says, "And Abraham believed God, and it was
reckoned to him as righteousness," and he was
called the friend of God.
JAM 2:24 You see that a man is justified by
works, and not by faith alone.
JAM 2:25 And in the same way was not Rahab
the harlot also justified by works, when she
received the messengers and sent them out by
another way?
JAM 2:26 For just as the body without the
spirit is dead, so also faith without works is
dead.
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Chapter 3
JAM 3:1
Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren,
knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter
judgment.
JAM 3:2 For we all stumble in many ways. If
anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a
perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as
well.
JAM 3:3 Now if we put the bits into the
horses' mouths so that they may obey us, we direct
their entire body as well.
JAM 3:4 Behold, the ships also, though they
are so great and are driven by strong winds, are
still directed by a very small rudder, wherever
the inclination of the pilot desires.
JAM 3:5 So also the tongue is a small part
of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.
Behold, how great a forest is set aflame by such a
small fire!
JAM 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, the very
world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our
members as that which defiles the entire body, and
sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on
fire by hell.
JAM 3:7 For every species of beasts and
birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is
tamed, and has been tamed by the human race.
JAM 3:8 But no one can tame the tongue; it
is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.
JAM 3:9 With it we bless our Lord and
Father; and with it we curse men, who have been
made in the likeness of God;
JAM 3:10 from the same mouth come both
blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things
ought not to be this way.
JAM 3:11 Does a fountain send out from the
same opening both fresh and bitter water?
JAM 3:12 Can a fig tree, my brethren,
produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Neither
can salt water produce fresh.
JAM 3:13 Who among you is wise and
understanding? Let him show by his good behavior
his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.
JAM 3:14 But if you have bitter jealousy
and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be
arrogant and so lie against the truth.
JAM 3:15 This wisdom is not that which
comes down from above, but is earthly, natural,
demonic.
JAM 3:16 For where jealousy and selfish
ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil
thing.
JAM 3:17 But the wisdom from above is first
pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of
mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without
hypocrisy.
JAM 3:18 And the seed whose fruit is
righteousness is sown in peace by those who make
peace.
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Chapter 4
JAM 4:1
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among
you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage
war in your members?
JAM 4:2 You lust and do not have; so you
commit murder. And you are envious and cannot
obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have
because you do not ask.
JAM 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because
you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend
it on your pleasures.
JAM 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know
that friendship with the world is hostility toward
God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of
the world makes himself an enemy of God.
JAM 4:5 Or do you think that the Scripture
speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the
Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"?
JAM 4:6 But He gives a greater grace.
Therefore it says, "God is opposed to the proud,
but gives grace to the humble."
JAM 4:7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the
devil and he will flee from you.
JAM 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw
near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and
purify your hearts, you double-minded.
JAM 4:9 Be miserable and mourn and weep;
let your laughter be turned into mourning, and
your joy to gloom.
JAM 4:10 Humble yourselves in the presence
of the Lord, and He will exalt you.
JAM 4:11 Do not speak against one another,
brethren. He who speaks against a brother, or
judges his brother, speaks against the law, and
judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are
not a doer of the law, but a judge of it.
JAM 4:12 There is only one Lawgiver and
Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy;
but who are you who judge your neighbor?
JAM 4:13 Come now, you who say, "Today or
tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city, and
spend a year there and engage in business and make
a profit."
JAM 4:14 Yet you do not know what your life
will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that
appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
JAM 4:15 Instead, you ought to say, "If the
Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or
that."
JAM 4:16 But as it is, you boast in your
arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
JAM 4:17 Therefore, to one who knows the
right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it
is sin.
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Chapter 5
JAM 5:1
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your
miseries which are coming upon you.
JAM 5:2 Your riches have rotted and your
garments have become moth-eaten.
JAM 5:3 Your gold and your silver have
rusted; and their rust will be a witness against
you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is
in the last days that you have stored up your
treasure!
JAM 5:4 Behold, the pay of the laborers who
mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by
you, cries out against you; and the outcry of
those who did the harvesting has reached the ears
of the Lord of Sabaoth.
JAM 5:5 You have lived luxuriously on the
earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have
fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
JAM 5:6 You have condemned and put to death
the righteous man; he does not resist you.
JAM 5:7 Be patient, therefore, brethren,
until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer
waits for the precious produce of the soil, being
patient about it, until it gets the early and late
rains.
JAM 5:8 You too be patient; strengthen your
hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
JAM 5:9 Do not complain, brethren, against
one another, that you yourselves may not be
judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the
door.
JAM 5:10 As an example, brethren, of
suffering and patience, take the prophets who
spoke in the name of the Lord.
JAM 5:11 Behold, we count those blessed who
endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job
and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings,
that the Lord is full of compassion and is
merciful.
JAM 5:12 But above all, my brethren, do not
swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any
other oath; but let your yes be yes, and your no,
no; so that you may not fall under judgment.
JAM 5:13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let
him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing
praises.
JAM 5:14 Is anyone among you sick? 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;
JAM 5:15 and the prayer offered in faith
will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord
will raise him up, and if he has committed sins,
they will be forgiven him.
JAM 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to
one another, and pray for one another, so that you
may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous
man can accomplish much.
JAM 5:17 Elijah was a man with a nature
like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might
not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for
three years and six months.
JAM 5:18 And he prayed again, and the sky
poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
JAM 5:19 My brethren, if any among you
strays from the truth, and one turns him back,
JAM 5:20 let him know that he who turns a
sinner from the error of his way will save his
soul from death, and will cover a multitude of
sins.
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Scripture
quotations taken from The New American Standard Bible®
The New American Standard Bible
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,
1975, 1977, 1995
by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif.
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