James 1

1 Jacob, bondservant of God and of Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes that are in the diaspora. To rejoice!*

2 Deem all joy, siblings of mine, when you fall into variegated tests,

3 knowing that the proving of your faith works out patience.

4 Yet the patience must have a complete work, so that you may be complete and whole, lacking in nothing.

5 Yet if anyone of you lacks wisdom, he must ask of the God giving to all without duplicity* and not reproaching, and He will give to him.

6 Yet he must ask in faith, doubting nothing, for the one doubting resembles a sea's wave, blown and hurled.

7 Indeed, that man must not expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,

8 being a man double-minded, unstable in all the ways of his.

9 And the humbled sibling must boast in the lowliness of his,

10 yet the wealthy person in the humiliation of his, because as a blossom of grass he will pass away.

11 For the sun rises with the burning heat, and it withers the grass, and the blossom falls out, and the goodly appearance of the face of it perishes. Thusly also the wealthy, in the pursuits of his, will waste away.

12 Blessed is a man who endures temptation, because having become approved, he will receive the crown of life that He promised to those loving Him.

13 No one, being tempted, is to say, "I am tempted by God." For God is untemptable by evil, and He tempts no one.

14 But each is tempted by his own lusts, having been drawn away and enticed.

15 Then the lust, having seized, gives birth to sin, and the sin, having been completed, brings forth death.

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved siblings.

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19 Look, siblings of mine, beloved! And let every human be quick to the listening, slow to the speaking, slow to wrath.

20 For man's anger does not work according to God's righteousness.

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Notes

v 1 The present infinitive of the Gk verb chairō (to rejoice, to be gracious) is attested in ancient documents as a greeting.

v 5 The Gk adverb haplō̂s is related to the adjectives haplóos and haploûs. These words are formed as the negation (with the prefix a-) of a concept of multiplicity (from the root -ploûs). Compare the use of the adjective in Matt. 6:22 and Luke 11:34.