MKJV - James

Chapter 1

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

1:2  My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into different kinds of temptations,

1:3  knowing that the trying of your faith works patience.

1:4  But let patience have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing.

1:5  But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and with no reproach, and it shall be given to him.

1:6  But let him ask in faith, doubting nothing. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.

1:7  For do not let that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord;

1:8  he is a double-minded man, not dependable in all his ways.

1:9  But let the humble brother rejoice in his exaltation;

1:10  and the rich one rejoice in his humiliation, because he shall pass away as the flower of the grass.

1:11  For the sun rose with the hot wind and dried up the grass, and its flower fell out, and the beauty of its appearance perished; so also the rich one will fade away in his ways.

1:12  Blessed is the man who endures temptation, because having been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

1:13  Let no one being tempted say, I am tempted from God. For God is not tempted by evils, and He tempts no one.

1:14  But each one is tempted by his lusts, being drawn away and seduced by them.

1:15  Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin. And sin, when it is fully formed, brings forth death.

1:16  Do not err, my beloved brothers.

1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning.

1:18  Of His own will He brought us forth with the Word of truth, for us to be a certain firstfruit of His creatures.

1:19  Therefore, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

1:20  For the wrath of man does not work out the righteousness of God.

1:21  Therefore putting aside all filthiness and overflowing of evil, receive in meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls.

1:22  But become doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

1:23  For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man studying his natural face in a mirror.

1:24  For he studied himself and went his way, and immediately he forgot what he was like.

1:25  But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, he is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This one shall be blessed in his doing.

1:26  If anyone thinks to be religious among you, yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is vain.

1:27  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their afflictions, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Chapter 2

2:1  My brothers, do not have the faith of our Lord Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

2:2  For if there comes a gold-fingered man in fancy clothing into your assembly, and if there also comes in a poor man in shabby clothing,

2:3  and if you have respect to him who has the fancy clothing and say to him, You sit here in a good place, and say to the poor, You stand there, or sit here under my footstool;

2:4  Did you not make a difference among yourselves and became judges with evil thoughts?

2:5  Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him?

2:6  But you dishonored the poor one. Do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats?

2:7  Do they not blaspheme that worthy Name by which you are called?

2:8  If you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well.

2:9  But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

2:10  For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

2:11  For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." But if you do not commit adultery, yet if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

2:12  So speak and do as those who shall be judged by the law of liberty.

2:13  For he who has shown no mercy shall have judgment without mercy, and mercy exults over judgment.

2:14  My brothers, what profit is it if a man says he has faith and does not have works? Can faith save him?

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

2:16  and if one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them those things which are needful to the body, what good is it?

2:17  Even so, if it does not have works, faith is dead, being by itself.

2:18  But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

2:19  You believe that there is one God, you do well; even the demons believe and tremble.

2:20  But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

2:21  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

2:22  Do you see how faith worked with his works, and by the works faith was made complete?

2:23  And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God."

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

2:25  And in the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way?

2:26  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Chapter 3

3:1  My brothers, do not be many teachers, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

3:2  For in many things we all offend. If anyone does not offend in word, the same is a full-grown man, able also to bridle the whole body.

3:3  Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, so that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body.

3:4  Behold also the ships being so great, and driven by fierce winds, yet they are turned about with a very small rudder, where the impulse of him steering desires.

3:5  Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. Behold how little a fire kindles how large a forest!

3:6  And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So the tongue is set among our members, spotting all the body and inflaming the course of nature, and being inflamed by hell.

3:7  For every kind of animals, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of sea-animals, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind.

3:8  But no one can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

3:9  By this we bless God, even the Father. And by this we curse men, who have come into being according to the image of God.

3:10  Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

3:11  Does a fountain send forth at the same hole the sweet and the bitter?

3:12  Can the fig tree, my brothers, bear olive berries; or a vine, figs? So no fountain can yield both salt water and fresh.

3:13  Who is wise and knowing among you? Let him show his works by his good conduct with meekness of wisdom.

3:14  But if you have bitter jealousy and strife in your hearts, do not glory and lie against the truth.

3:15  This is not the wisdom coming down from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

3:16  For where envying and strife are, there is confusion and every foul deed.

3:17  But the wisdom that is from above is first truly pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

3:18  And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Chapter 4

4:1  From where do wars and fightings among you come? Is it not from this, from your lusts which war in your members?

4:2  You desire, and do not have. You murder, and are jealous, and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not.

4:3  You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it upon your lusts.

4:4  Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever desires to be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

4:5  Do you think that the Scripture says in vain, The spirit that dwells in us yearns to envy?

4:6  But He gives more grace. Therefore He says, God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.

4:7  Therefore submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

4:8  Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners; and purify your hearts, double-minded ones.

4:9  Be afflicted, and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.

4:10  Be humbled before the Lord, and He will lift you up.

4:11  Do not speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against his brother, and who 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.

4:12  There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you who judges another?

4:13  Come now, those saying, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and spend a year there, and we will trade and will make a profit,

4:14  who do not know of the morrow. For what is your life? For it is a vapor, which appears for a little time, and then disappears.

4:15  Instead of you saying, If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.

4:16  But now you boast in your presumptions. All such boasting is evil.

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

Chapter 5

5:1  Come now, rich ones, weep and howl for your hardships coming on.

5:2  Your riches have rotted, and your clothes have become moth-eaten.

5:3  Your gold and silver have corroded, and their poison will be a witness against you, and will eat your flesh as fire. You heaped treasure in the last days.

5:4  Behold, the hire of the laborers reaping your fields cry out, being kept back by you. And the cries of those who have reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts.

5:5  You have lived luxuriously on the earth, and lived wantonly. You have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

5:6  You have condemned and murdered the just; he does not resist you.

5:7  Therefore be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and has long patience for it, until he receives the early and the latter rain.

5:8  You also be patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of your Lord draws near.

5:9  Do not grudge against one another, brothers, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge stands before the door.

5:10  My brothers, take the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering ill, and of patience.

5:11  Behold, we count blessed those who endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is full of pity and of tender mercy.

5:12  But before all things, my brothers, do not swear; neither by the heaven nor by the earth, nor any other oath. But let your yes be yes, and your no, no, lest you fall into condemnation.

5:13  Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing psalms.

5:14  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.

5:15  And the prayer of faith will cure the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him.

5:16  Confess faults to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous one avails much.

5:17  Elijah was a man of like passion as we are. And he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for the time of three years and six months.

5:18  And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth caused its fruit to sprout.

5:19  Brothers, if anyone among you err from the truth, and if anyone turns him back,

5:20  know that he who turns back the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.