Godbey - James

Chapter 1

1:1  James, the servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are in the Dispersion, greeting.

1:2  Count it all joy, my brethren, when you may fall into manifold temptations.

1:3  Knowing that the trial of your faith works out endurance.

1:4  But let endurance have its perfect work, in order that you may be perfect and whole in every part, lacking in nothing.

1:5  But if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all cheerfully and upbraids none; and it will be given unto him.

1:6  But let him ask in faith, doubting as to nothing; for he that doubts is like unto a wave of the sea driven by the winds and tossed by the tempest.

1:7  For let not that man think that he will receive anything from the Lord,

1:8  the double-minded man, the most unstable in all his ways.

1:9  But let the humble brother boast in his exaltation:

1:10  and the rich man, in his humility: because as the flower of the grass he will pass away.

1:11  For the sun with a scorching wind has risen, and dried up the grass, and its flower fell off, and the beauty of its countenance perished: so indeed the rich man will pass away in his ways.

1:12  Happy is the man who endures temptation: because, being proved, he will receive a crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him with divine love.

1:13  Let no one being tempted say, I am tempted from God. For God can not be tempted with evils, and he tempts no one:

1:14  but each one is tempted by his own lusts, being drawn out, and enticed.

1:15  Then the lust, conceiving, brings forth sin; and sin, having been perfected, produces death.

1:16  Be not deceived, my beloved brethren.

1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of change.

1:18  Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth, that we should be some first fruit of his creations.

1:19  Know, my beloved brethren; but let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow toward wrath:

1:20  for the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God.

1:21  Therefore having laid aside all filthiness and excess of evil, receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

1:22  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

1:23  For if any one is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a mirror:

1:24  for he recognized himself, and has gone away, and immediately forgot what kind he was.

1:25  But the one having looked into the perfect law which is the law of liberty, and having remained in it, not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, he shall be happy in his work.

1:26  But if any one seems to be religious, bridling not his own tongue, but deceiving his own heart, the religion of that man is vain.

1:27  Pure religion and undefiled with God even the Father is this, to relieve the orphans and widows in their affliction, and keep himself unspotted from the world.

Chapter 2

2:1  My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect to persons.

2:2  For if a gold-ringed man may come into your synagogue, in shining apparel, and a poor man may also come in with soiled clothing;

2:3  and you may look upon the one wearing the shining garment, and say, Sit thou here in a good place; and may say to the poor man, Stand thou there, or sit down beneath my footstool:

2:4  are you not condemned among yourselves, and have you not become the judges of evil reasonings?

2:5  Hear, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen the poor in the world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him with divine love?

2:6  You have dishonored the poor. Do not the rich domineer over you, and drag you into courts?

2:7  Do they not blaspheme the good name which has been called upon you?

2:8  If indeed you keep the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor with divine love as thyself, you do well.

2:9  But if you have respect of persons, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.

2:10  For whosoever may keep the whole law, and fail in one item, has become guilty of all.

2:11  For the one saying, Thou shalt not commit adultery also said, Thou shalt not murder; but if you do not commit adultery, but murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

2:12  So you say, and so you do, as about to be condemned by the law of liberty.

2:13  For judgment is without mercy to him that shows no mercy; but mercy glorieth against judgment.

2:14  But what is it profitable, my brethren, if one may say he has faith, but has not works? whether is faith able to save him?

2:15  If a brother or sister may be naked, and may be destitute of daily food,

2:16  and one of you may say to them, Go in peace, be ye warmed, and be ye fed; and give them not the necessaries of the body; what profit is it?

2:17  So indeed faith, if it may not have works, is dead, as to itself.

2:18  But one will say, You have faith, and I have works: Show me your faith apart from works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

2:19  Do you believe that there is one God? you do well: the demons also believe and tremble.

2:20  Do you wish to know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is inefficient?

2:21  Was not Abraham our father justified by works, having offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

2:22  You see that faith wrought with his works, and by works the faith was made perfect;

2:23  and the scripture was fulfilled, saying, And Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the friend of God.

2:24  You see that a man is justified by works, and not only by faith.

2:25  And likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, having received the spies, and sent them out by another way?

2:26  For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith also apart from works is dead.

Chapter 3

3:1  Be ye not many teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive the greater judgment.

3:2  For we all fail in many things; if any one fails not in word, the same is a perfect man, able even to bridle the whole body.

3:3  But if we put bridles into the mouths of the horses, that they may obey us; and we manage their whole body;

3:4  behold also the ships, being so great, and driven by fierce winds, are managed by the smallest rudder, whithersoever the will of the steersman prefers;

3:5  so also the tongue is a little member, and it boasts great things. Behold, how great a wood a little fire kindles!

3:6  The tongue, a fire, the world of iniquity: the tongue sits down in the midst of our members, and corrupting the whole body, and setting on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire from hell.

3:7  For every nature both of wild beasts, and of birds, and of creeping things, and of oceanic animals, is subdued, and has been subjugated to human nature:

3:8  but no one of men is able to tame the tongue; an incorrigible evil, full of deadly poison.

3:9  With it we bless the Lord, even the Father; and with it we scold the people, who have been made after the image of God:

3:10  out of the same mouth come forth blessing and scolding. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

3:11  Whether does the fountain out of the same chink send forth sweet water and bitter?

3:12  My brethren, whether is the fig-tree able to produce olives, or the vine figs? Neither is the bitter fountain able to produce sweet water.

3:13  Who is wise and instructed among you? Let him show forth out of beautiful conduct his works in meekness of wisdom.

3:14  But if you have bitter envy and strife in your heart, do not boast, and lie against the truth.

3:15  This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but it is earthly, intellectual, and demoniacal.

3:16  For where there are envy and strife, there are contention and every evil work.

3:17  But the wisdom which is from above is indeed first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easily persuaded, full of mercy and of good works, free from partiality and hypocrisy.

3:18  But the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace to those who are making peace.

Chapter 4

4:1  Whence come wars and whence come battles within you? are they not from thence, from your pleasures warring in your members?

4:2  You lust, and you have not: you murder, and you strive, and you are not able to obtain: you fight and you war; and have not, because you do not ask:

4:3  you ask, and you receive not, because you ask wickedly, that you may expend it in your pleasures.

4:4  O adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity to God? Whosoever therefore may wish to be the friend of the world renders himself the enemy of God.

4:5  Whether do you think that the scripture says in vain, The spirit who dwells in us fights against envy?

4:6  and he gives more grace. Therefore he says, God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble.

4:7  Therefore draw nigh unto God; and resist the devil, and he will flee from you:

4:8  draw nigh unto God, and he draws nigh unto you. Purify your hands, ye sinners; and cleanse your hearts, ye double-minded.

4:9  Weep, and mourn, lament: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into sorrow.

4:10  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will raise you up.

4:11  Do not calumniate one another, brethren: the one speaking against his brother, and judging his brother, speaks against the law, and judges the law: if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.

4:12  There is one lawgiver and judge, who is able to save and to destroy: but who are you, the one judging your neighbor.

4:13  Come now, ye who are saying, To-day or to-morrow we will go into that city, and abide there a year, and trade and accumulate:

4:14  whosoever do not know that which belongs to the morrow: for what is your life? For you are a vapor, appearing for a moment, and then vanishing away;

4:15  on the contrary you should say, If the Lord will, and we live, we will indeed do this, or that.

4:16  But you are now boasting in your arrogances: all such boasting is wicked.

4:17  Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.

Chapter 5

5:1  Come now, ye rich, weep mourning over your calamities which are coming on you.

5:2  Your riches are corrupted, and your garments have become moth-eaten:

5:3  your gold and your silver are cankered; and their rust shall be for a witness against you, and eat your flesh like fire. You laid up treasures in the last days.

5:4  Behold, the wages of the laborers having reaped your fields, which is fraudulently kept back by you, is crying out: and the voices of the reapers have come into the ears of the Lord of hosts.

5:5  Ye flourished upon the earth, and were wanton; you nourished your hearts in the day of slaughter.

5:6  You condemned, you murdered the righteous; nothing antagonizes you.

5:7  Therefore, O brethren, suffer long, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer receives the precious fruit of the earth, waiting for it, until he may receive the former and latter rain:

5:8  you also suffer long; establish your hearts; because the coming of the Lord is nigh.

5:9  Do not complain against one another, brethren, in order that you may not be judged: behold, the judge stands before the doors.

5:10  Brethren, receive the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering evil and longsuffering.

5:11  Behold, we pronounce them happy who have endured: you have heard the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, because the Lord is very merciful, and sympathetic.

5:12  But, my brethren, before all, swear not, neither by heaven, or by earth, or any other oath: but let your conversation be yes yes; and no no; lest you may fall under condemnation.

5:13  Who is afflicted among you? let him pray. Who is merry? let him sing psalms.

5:14  Is any one 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.

5:15  Truly the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; if he may have committed sins, they shall be forgiven unto him.

5:16  Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, in order that you may be healed: the inward working prayer of a righteous man avails much.

5:17  Elijah was a man of like suffering to us, and he prayed with prayer that it might not rain, and it rained not upon the earth during three years and six months;

5:18  and again he prayed, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

5:19  My brethren, if any one among you may err from the truth, and one may turn him back;

5:20  let him know, that the one having turned a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and hide a multitude of sins.