Montgomery - James

Chapter 1

1:1  James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, sends greeting to the twelve tribes that are scattered abroad.

1:2  My brothers, when you are beset by various temptations, count it all joy,

1:3  because you know that the testing of your faith is working out endurance.

1:4  But let endurance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and entire, not lacking in anything.

1:5  If any one of you is lacking in wisdom, let him ask it from the God who gives to all men freely and without upbraiding; and it will be given to him.

1:6  But let him ask in faith, without wavering; for he who wavers is like a surge of the sea, wind-driven and tossed.

1:7  Such a man need not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord,

1:8  double-minded as he is, unstable at every turn.

1:9  Let a brother in humble circumstances glory in his exaltation;

1:10  but a rich brother, in his humiliation; because like the flower of the grass the rich man will pass away.

1:11  For as the sun comes up with a burning heat, it withers the grass, and its flowers fall, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes; so also shall the rich man fade away amid his pursuits.

1:12  Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

1:13  When he is being tempted, let no one say, "It is God who tempts me," for God cannot be tempted with evil, nor does he tempt any man.

1:14  But each man is tempted by his own lusts that allure and entice him.

1:15  Then lust conceives and gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is mature, brings forth death.

1:16  Do not be deceived, my brothers!

1:17  Every good gift and every perfect boon is from above, and is ever coming down to us from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom is no variation nor shadow of eclipse.

1:18  Because he willed, he gave us birth through the word of truth, so that we should be a kind of first-fruits among his creatures.

1:19  Mark this well, my dear brothers. Let every man be swift in hearing, slow in speaking, slow in growing angry;

1:20  for a man’s anger does not further the righteous purpose of God.

1:21  So strip off all filthiness and superfluity of wickedness, and in meekness receive the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls.

1:22  And become doers of the Word, and not merely hearers, deceiving yourselves.

1:23  Because if any one is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;

1:24  for after he has looked carefully at himself, he goes away, and at once forgets what he is like.

1:25  But the man who looks closely into the perfect law - the law of liberty - and continues looking, this man will be blessed in his deed because he is not a hearer who forgets, but a doer who does.

1:26  If a man thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own religion,

1:27  and undefiled before our God and Father, to look after orphans and widows in their affliction, and ever to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Chapter 2

2:1  My brothers, do not hold the faith of the Lord Jesus, the Lord of Glory, in a spirit of caste.

2:2  Suppose a man comes into your synagogue with a gold ring and dazzling clothes, and suppose a poor man comes in, also, in shabby clothes,

2:3  and you look up to him who wears the fine clothing, and say to him, "Sit here in this fine place!" and to the poor man you say, "Stand there!" or "Sit on the floor at my feet!"

2:4  are you not drawing distinctions among yourselves, and have you not become judges with evil thoughts?

2:5  Listen, my dear brothers, has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith, and to inherit the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him?

2:6  But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you to court?

2:7  Are they not blaspheming that glorious Name by which you are called?

2:8  If you are keeping the royal law, which says, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thou dost thyself, you are doing well.

2:9  If you have the spirit of caste you are committing sin, and are convicted by the Law as transgressors.

2:10  For if a man keeps the whole of the Law, and yet stumbles in one point, he is guilty of all.

2:11  For he who said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not Kill. Now if you do not commit adultery, but if you do kill, you have transgressed the Law.

2:12  So speak and act like men who are to be judged by the law of liberty.

2:13  For judgment is without mercy to the man who has showed no mercy. but mercy glories in the face of judgment.

2:14  My brothers, what good is it if any one says that he has faith, if he has no deeds? Can such faith save him?

2:15  If a brother or sister be naked and in need of daily food,

2:16  and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, find warmth and food for yourselves," but at the same time you do not give the necessaries of the body, what good would that do them?

2:17  In just the same way faith, if it have not deeds, is by itself a lifeless thing.

2:18  Some one indeed may say, "You have faith, and I have deeds." "Then show me your faith," I answer, "apart from any deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds."

2:19  You believe that God is one? You do well; even the demons believe, and they shudder.

2:20  But do you want to be convinced, O foolish man, that faith apart from deeds is barren?

2:21  Was not Abraham our ancestor justified by deeds, in that he offered up Isaac, his son, upon the altar?

2:22  You see how faith was cooperating with deeds, and faith was made perfect by deeds.

2:23  And the Scripture was fulfilled which said, And Abraham believed God, and this was imputed to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend.

2:24  You see, then, that it is by his deeds a man is justified, and not simply by his faith.

2:25  In like manner was not Rahab, the harlot, justified by her deeds, in the fact that she received the messengers and sent them forth by another way?

2:26  So just as the body without a spirit is dead, so faith is dead without deeds.

Chapter 3

3:1  Do not become many teachers, my brothers, because you know well that we teachers shall be judged by a severer standard than others.

3:2  For in many respects we often stumble. If any man never stumbles in speech, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.

3:3  When we put bits in the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we control their whole body also.

3:4  Look at the ships too, though they are so large, even when driven by fierce winds they are turned by a very small rudder, wherever the impulse of the helmsman wills.

3:5  So also the tongue is a small member and makes great boasts. Behold, how great a forest is set on fire by a little spark!

3:6  And the tongue is a fire; it is a very world of iniquity among our members, defiling the whole body, and setting on fire the wheel of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell.

3:7  For while every kind of beast and bird, and of reptiles and sea- creatures are tamable, and actually have been tamed by mankind,

3:8  no man can tame the tongue, restless evil that it is, full of deadly poison.

3:9  With it we continually bless our Lord and Father, and with it we are accustomed to curse men made in the image of God.

3:10  From out of the same mouth pour forth blessings and cursings! My brothers, this ought not to be so.

3:11  Does a spring pour forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter?

3:12  Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives; or a grape-vine, figs? No more can salt water yield fresh water.

3:13  Who among you is wise and intelligent? Let him show his deeds by his good life, in the meekness of wisdom.

3:14  But if you have bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, do not be boasting of that, and be false to the truth.

3:15  Such wisdom is not that which is descending from on high, but is earthly, sensual, demonlike.

3:16  For wherever jealousy and faction exist, there is confusion and every evil deed.

3:17  But the wisdom which comes from on high is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, conciliatory, overflowing with mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without insincerity.

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

Chapter 4

4:1  Where do the conflicts and quarrels that go on among you come from? Do they not come from your passions which are always making war among your bodily members?

4:2  You continually crave and do not obtain; you are killing and coveting and cannot acquire; you are fighting and at war. You do not have, because you do not ask.

4:3  You continue to ask and do not receive, because you are asking with a wrong purpose, in order to spend it upon your pleasures.

4:4  You adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity to God? Whoever, then, desires to be a friend of the world, makes himself and enemy of God.

4:5  Or do you suppose that it is in vain that the Scripture says, "The spirit which has its home in us yearns over us unto jealousy?"

4:6  But he gives more and more grace. therefore it is said, God ever resists the proud; but to the humble he gives grace continually.

4:7  So then ever be subject to God, Ever 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, you sinners, And purify your hearts, you double-minded.

4:9  Lament and mourn, and weep aloud! Let your laughter be turned into mourning, And your joy into gloom!

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

4:11  Do not be talking against each other, brothers. He who is talking against a brother and condemning his brothers is talking against the Law and condemning the Law. But if you are condemning the Law, you are not a doer of the Law, but a judge.

4:12  But One is your Lawgiver and Judge - he who is able to save and to destroy. But you, who are you, to be condemning your neighbor?

4:13  Go to now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we shall journey to such a city and spend a year there, and trade and make money,"

4:14  when all the time you do not know what will happen on the morrow. For what is your life? You are but a mist, appearing for a brief time, and then vanishing.

4:15  You ought instead to say, "If the Lord wills it, we shall live and do this or that."

4:16  But now you are glorying in these insolent boastings of yours; all such glorying is evil.

4:17  So to him who knows how to do right and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Chapter 5

5:1  Go to now, you rich men! Weep aloud, howl for the miseries which are about to come upon you!

5:2  For your riches lie rotting, and your clothing has become moth-eaten.

5:3  Your gold and silver are rusted. and their rust will be for a testimony against you, and it will eat your flesh. For you have been storing up fire in these last days!

5:4  Look! the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have been keeping back by fraud, are crying aloud! And the cries of the reapers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth!

5:5  You have lived luxuriously on earth, you have taken your pleasure, you have fattened your hearts for a day of slaughter.

5:6  You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous man unresisting!

5:7  Be patient, then, brothers, till the coming of the Lord. Behold the farmer who waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it gets the early and the latter rains.

5:8  So you also must be patient. Stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord is at hand!

5:9  Do not make complaints against each other, brothers, lest you yourselves be condemned. Behold the Judge is standing before the very door!

5:10  Take, my brothers, for an example the suffering and the patience of the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

5:11  Remember we count those that were stedfast happy. You have heard of the stedfastness of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord with him, seen how the Lord is full of tenderness.

5:12  Again, above all things, my brothers, swear not at all, neither by the heavens, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath. Let your "yes" be "yes," and your "no," "no," so you will not fall under condemnation.

5:13  Is any one of you in trouble? Let him pray.

5:14  Is any in good spirits? Let him sing unto his harp. Is any one of you ill? Let him send for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, after anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;

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

5:16  So confess your sins one to another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. For the fervent prayer of a righteous man is mighty in its working.

5:17  Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

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

5:19  My brothers, if any one of you strays from the truth, and some one brings him back,

5:20  let him know that he who brings a sinner back from the error of his ways, saves his soul from death, and hides a multitude of sins.