Self-interpreting Bible

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James 1

1The apostle's address to the dispersed Jews. 2He recommendeth patience and joy in afflictions, 5and prayer with faith. 9He giveth advice to the poor and to the rich. 12The reward of those that are firmly resistant under trial. 13Our own lusts, and not God, tempt us to sin. 17God is the unchangeable author of all good to his creatures. 19We must receive the word with purity and meekness, and not only hear, but do it. 26The necessity of governing the tongue. 27The essential duties of true religion.

1 aJAMES, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, bto the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

2 My brethren, ccount it all joy when ye fall into *divers temptations;

3 dKnowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

4 But elet patience have her perfect work, that ye may be fperfect and entire, wanting nothing.

5 gIf any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and *upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

6 But hlet him ask in faith, inothing wavering. For he that wavereth jis like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

    8 kA double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

    9 Let the brother of low degree 1rejoice lin that he is exalted:

    10 But mthe rich, nin that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

    11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

      12 oBlessed is the man that endureth temptation: for pwhen he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

      13 qLet no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with 2evil, neither tempteth he any man:

      14 But revery man is tempted, when he is drawn away sof his own lust, and enticed.

      15 Then twhen lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, ubringeth forth death.

      16 vDo not err, wmy beloved brethren.

      17 xEvery good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from ythe Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

      18 zOf his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his *creatures.

      19 aWherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

      20 bFor the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

      21 Wherefore clay apart all filthiness and superfluity of *naughtiness, and dreceive with meekness the *engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

      22 But ebe ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

      23 fFor if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in ga *glass:

      24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what *manner of man he was.

      • *: manner-kind, sort.

      25 hBut whoso looketh into the perfect ilaw of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man jshall be blessed in his 3deed.

      26 kIf any man among you seem to be religious, and lbridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

      27 mPure religion and undefiled before nGod and the Father is this, oTo visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and pto keep himself unspotted from the world.