1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. 2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations. 3 Knowing [this] , that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have [her] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 5 If any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all [men] liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is 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 from the Lord. 8 A man unsettled in his opinions [is] unstable in all his ways. 9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: 10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. 11 For the sun hath no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and its flower falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. 12 Blessed [is] the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. 13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. 16 Do not err, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 18 Of his own will he hath begotten us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures. 19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth away, and immediately forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But he who looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth [in it] , he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 26 If any man among you seemeth to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion [is] vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world.
James · Noah Webster's Bible (1833)
James 1 Noah Webster's Bible (1833)
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
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James
The Gospels name him first among Jesus' brothers (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3), and Paul calls him 'James, the Lord's brother' (Galatians 1:19); he led the church in Jerusalem and is…
Cited in the guide: Matthew 13:55; Acts 15; James 1:1
Cross references (27)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Ezekiel 12:15; 1 Peter 1:1; John 7:35; Acts 8:1; Acts 26:7
- 2 1 Peter 1:6–8; James 1:12; 2 Corinthians 12:9–10; Matthew 5:10–12; Luke 6:22–23
- 3 Romans 5:3–4; Hebrews 10:36; Colossians 1:11; 2 Corinthians 4:17; Romans 8:28
- 4 1 Peter 5:10; Luke 21:19; Matthew 5:48; 2 Timothy 3:17; Galatians 6:9
- 5 Proverbs 2:3–6; John 15:7; Jeremiah 29:12–13; Proverbs 3:5–7; 1 John 5:14–15
- 6 Matthew 21:21–22; Hebrews 11:6; Mark 11:22–24; Ephesians 4:14; Hebrews 10:23
- 7 James 4:3; Proverbs 15:8; Isaiah 1:15; Isaiah 58:3–4; Proverbs 21:27
- 8 1 Kings 18:21; Matthew 6:24; James 4:8; Isaiah 29:13; 2 Peter 2:14
- 9 Jeremiah 9:23–24; Proverbs 19:1; James 2:5–6; 2 Corinthians 6:10; Psalm 62:9
- 10 1 Peter 1:24; 1 John 2:17; Job 14:2; 1 Timothy 6:17; Matthew 5:3
- 11 Isaiah 40:7–8; Psalm 37:35–36; Luke 16:19–25; Mark 4:6; Psalm 49:6–14
- 12 1 Peter 5:10; 1 Peter 1:6–8; Revelation 2:10; James 5:11; Romans 8:28
- 13 James 1:12; Habakkuk 2:12–13; Romans 9:19–20; James 1:2; Genesis 3:12
- 14 Mark 7:21–22; Ephesians 4:22; Matthew 15:18; Hebrews 3:13; Proverbs 4:23
- 15 Psalm 7:14; Job 15:35; Romans 5:12–21; Genesis 2:17; Isaiah 59:4
- 16 James 1:19; Galatians 6:7; Colossians 2:8; Hebrews 13:1; Colossians 2:4
- 17 John 3:27; Matthew 7:11; Hebrews 13:8; John 8:12; Numbers 23:19
- 18 Romans 8:29–31; 1 Peter 1:23; John 3:3–5; John 1:13; 1 Peter 1:3
- 19 Proverbs 17:27; Proverbs 21:23; Proverbs 14:29; Proverbs 10:19; Proverbs 18:13
- 20 2 Timothy 2:24–25; Ephesians 4:26; James 3:17–18; Numbers 20:11–12
- 21 Ephesians 4:22; Ephesians 1:13; 1 Peter 2:11; John 6:63; Psalm 25:9
- 22 Romans 2:13; Luke 6:46–48; John 13:17; James 4:17; 1 John 2:3
- 23 Matthew 7:26–27; James 2:14–26; Ezekiel 33:31–32; Luke 6:47; Jeremiah 44:16
- 24 2 Peter 3:11; Luke 1:66; Luke 7:39; 1 Thessalonians 1:5; Matthew 8:27
- 25 Luke 11:28; John 13:17; 2 Corinthians 3:17–18; 1 Peter 2:16; Luke 6:47–49
- 26 Psalm 141:3; Ephesians 4:29; 1 Peter 3:10; Ephesians 5:4; Proverbs 19:1
- 27 Isaiah 1:16–17; 1 John 3:17–19; Galatians 6:9–10; Romans 12:2; Matthew 25:34–46
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
But I hungered and thirsted not even after those first works of Thine, but after Thee Thyself, the Truth, "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning;" yet they still served up to me in those dishes glowing phantasies, than which better were it to love this very sun (which, at least, is true to our sight), than those …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
… not by passion, or union, not in ignorance, not by effluence, not by diminution, not by alteration, for every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow of turning.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
How, therefore, are demons driven off by them, diseases dispelled, sick persons made well, the blind restored to sight, lepers purified, temptations and troubles overcome, and how does every good gift from the Father of lights come down through them to those who pray with sure faith?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 9 (1899)
… light my candle; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness; and "of His fulness have all we received," for "that was the true Light which lighted every man that cometh into the world;" for in Thee there is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
For if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth, and he shall receive.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)