James

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

1This letter is from James. He serves God and the Lord Jesus Christ. He writes to the twelve family groups of Israel. They live spread out in many lands. James says hello to them.

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

2My brothers and sisters, many kinds of hard times will come to you. When they come, be full of joy.

NoteThe old word here is "temptations," but it means hard times of every kind, like sickness or trouble. In verse 13 the same word means being pulled to do something wrong.

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

3You know why. Hard times test your trust in God. That test teaches you to keep going.

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

4Let that keep-going work finish its job in you. Then you will be grown up and complete. You will not be missing anything.

5If 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.

5Maybe you need wisdom, which means knowing the right thing to do. Then ask God. He gives to everyone freely, and he does not scold you. He will give it to you.

6But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

6But when you ask, really trust God. Do not go back and forth. A person who doubts is like a wave on the sea. The wind blows it and tosses it around.

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

7That person should not expect to get anything from the Lord.

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

8He is a man with two minds. He is shaky in everything he does.

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

9A believer who is poor should be glad. God has lifted him up high.

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

10A rich believer should be glad when he is brought low. He will fade away like a flower in the grass.

11For 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.

11The sun comes up and burns hot. The grass dries out. The flower falls off. Its pretty look is gone. A rich man will fade the same way while he is busy.

12Blessed 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.

12God is pleased with the man who keeps going when hard times test him. When he passes the test, he gets the crown of life. The Lord promised it to those who love him.

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

13When someone is pulled to do wrong, he must not say, "God is pulling me." Evil cannot pull God at all. And God does not pull anyone to do wrong.

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

14Each person is pulled by his own bad wants. They drag him away and trick him.

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

15The bad want grows inside him, and it gives birth to sin. When sin is full grown, it gives birth to death.

16Do not err, my beloved brethren.

16Do not be fooled, my dear brothers and sisters.

17Every 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.

17Every good and perfect gift comes from above. It comes down from the Father who made the lights in the sky. He never changes. He does not shift like a moving shadow.

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

18He chose to give us new life through his true word. So we are like the first fruit picked from everything he made.

Note"Firstfruits" means the first part of a harvest. Farmers brought that first part to God before the rest was gathered.

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

19My dear brothers and sisters, know this. Everyone should be quick to listen. Everyone should be slow to talk. Everyone should be slow to get angry.

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

20A person's anger does not make him live the right way that God wants.

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

21So get rid of everything dirty and all the evil in your life. Be humble and take in God's word, which was planted in you. It can save your souls.

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

22Do what God's word says. Do not only listen to it. If you only listen, you are fooling yourselves.

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

23Someone may hear God's word and not do it. He is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror.

NoteThe old word here is "glass." It means a mirror, the kind you look at your face in.

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

24He looks at himself, then walks away. Right away he forgets what he looked like.

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

25But another man looks closely at God's perfect law that sets people free. He keeps on doing it. He does not hear it and forget it. He does the work, and God will bless him in what he does.

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

26Someone may think he serves God well. But he does not control his tongue. He is fooling his own heart. His way of serving God is worth nothing.

27Pure 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.

27God our Father calls this way of serving him clean and pure. Help children who have no father. Help women whose husbands have died. Help them when they are hurting. And keep yourself clean from the wrong ways of the world.