James 1
1
1James, bondman of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the dispersion, greeting.
2Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into various temptations, 3knowing that the proving of your faith works endurance. 4But let endurance have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5But if any one of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all freely and reproaches not, and it shall be given to him: 6but let him ask in faith, nothing doubting. For he that doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed about; 7for let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. 9But let the brother of low degree glory in his elevation, 10and the rich in his humiliation, because as the grass's flower he will pass away. 11For the sun has risen with its burning heat, and has withered the grass, and its flower has fallen, and the comeliness of its look has perished: thus the rich also shall wither in his goings. 12Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for, having been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which He has promised to them that love him.
13Let no man, being tempted, say, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted by evil things, and himself tempts no one. 14But every one is tempted, drawn away, and enticed by his own lust; 15then lust, having conceived, gives birth to sin; but sin fully completed brings forth death. 16Do not err, my beloved brethren. 17Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights, with whom is no variation nor shadow of turning. 18According to his own will begat he us by the word of truth, that we should be a certain first-fruits of his creatures.
19So that, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20for man's wrath does not work God's righteousness. 21Wherefore, laying aside all filthiness and abounding of wickedness, accept with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, beguiling yourselves. 23For if any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like to a man considering his natural face in a mirror: 24for he has considered himself and is gone away, and straightway he has forgotten what he was like. 25But he that fixes his view on the perfect law, that of liberty, and abides in it, being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, he shall be blessed in his doing. 26If any one think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, this man's religion is vain. 27Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
Currently Selected:
James 1: DARBY
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
James 1
1
1I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello!
Faith Under Pressure
2-4Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.
5-8If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.
9-11When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don’t ever count on it. You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that’s a picture of the “prosperous life.” At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.
12Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.
13-15Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.
16-18So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.
Act on What You Hear
19-21Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
22-24Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
25But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.
26-27Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.