BibleWare/BibWare.bin/bibtrans/weymouth.exe/JAS.WNT

Text File | 1993-06-07 | 16KB | 303 lines

1:1 James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: to
 the /1 twelve tribes who are scattered over the world. All good
 wishes.
1:2 Reckon it nothing but joy, my brethren, whenever you find
 yourselves hedged in by various /2 trials.
1:3 Be assured that the testing of your faith leads to power of
 endurance.
1:4 Only let endurance have perfect results so that you may
 become perfect and complete, deficient in nothing.
1:5 And if any one of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask
 God for it, who gives with open hand to all men, and without
 upbraiding; and it will be given him.
1:6 But let him ask in faith and have no doubts; for he who has
 doubts is like the surge of the sea, driven by the wind and
 tossed into spray.
1:7 A person of that sort must not expect /3 to receive anything
 from the Lord--
1:8 such a one is a man of two minds, undecided in every step he
 takes.
1:9 Let a brother in humble life rejoice when raised to a higher
 position;
1:10 but a rich man should rejoice in being brought low, for
 like flowers among the herbage rich men will pass away.
1:11 The sun rises with his scorching heat and dries up the
 herbage, so that its flowers drop off and the beauty of its
 appearance perishes, and in the same way rich men with all
 their prosperity will fade away.
1:12 Blessed is he who patiently endures /2 trials; for when he
 has stood the test, he will gain the victor's crown--even the
 /4 crown of Life--which the Lord has promised to those who love
 Him.

1:13 Let no one say when passing through /1 trial, "My
 temptation is from God;" for God is incapable of being tempted
 to do evil, and He Himself tempts no one.
1:14 But when a man is tempted, it is his own passions that
 carry him away and /2 serve as a bait.
1:15 Then /3 the passion conceives, and becomes the parent of
 sin; and sin, /4 when fully matured, gives birth to death.
1:16 Do not be deceived, my dearly-loved brethren.
1:17 Every gift which is good, and every perfect boon, is from
 above, and comes down from the Father, who is the source of all
 Light. In Him there is no variation nor the slightest
 suggestion of change.
1:18 In accordance with His will He made us His children through
 the Message of the truth, so that we might, in a sense, be the
 Firstfruits of the things which He has created.
1:19 You know this, my dearly-loved brethren. But let every one
 be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to be angry.
1:20 For a man's anger does not lead to action which God regards
 as righteous.
1:21 /5 Ridding yourselves, therefore, of all that is vile and
 of the evil influences which prevail around you, welcome in a
 humble spirit the Message implanted within you, which is able
 to save your souls.
1:22 But prove yourselves obedient to the Message, and do not be
 mere hearers of it, imposing a delusion upon yourselves.
1:23 For if any one listens but does not obey, he is like a man
 who carefully looks at /6 his own face in a mirror.
1:24 Although he /7 has looked carefully at himself, he goes
 away, and has immediately forgotten the sort of man /8 he is.
1:25 But he who /9 looks closely into the perfect Law--the Law
 of freedom--and continues looking, he, being not a hearer who
 forgets, but an obedient doer, will as the result of his
 obedience be blessed.

1:26 If a man /1 thinks that he is scrupulously religious,
 although he is not curbing his tongue but is deceiving /2
 himself, his religious service is worthless.
1:27 The religious service which is pure and stainless in the
 sight of our God and Father is to visit fatherless children and
 widowed women in their time of trouble, and to keep one's own
 self unspotted from the world.
2:1 My brethren, you must not /3 make distinctions between one
 man and another while you are striving to maintain faith in the
 Lord Jesus Christ, /4 who is our glory.
2:2 For suppose a man comes into one of your meetings wearing
 gold rings and fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man
 wearing shabby clothes,
2:3 and you pay court to the one who wears the fine clothes, and
 say, "Sit here; this is a good place;" while to the poor man
 you say, "Stand there, or sit on the floor at my feet;"
2:4 is it not plain that in your hearts you /5 have little
 faith, seeing that you have become judges full of wrong
 thoughts?
2:5 Listen, my dearly-loved brethren. Has not God chosen those
 whom the world regards as poor to be rich in faith and heirs of
 /6 the Kingdom which He has promised to those that love Him?
2:6 But *you* have put dishonour upon the poor man. Yet is it
 not the rich who grind you down? Are not they the very people
 who drag you into the Law courts? --
2:7 and the very people who speak evil of the noble Name by
 which you are called?
2:8 If, however, you are keeping the Law /7 as supreme, in
 obedience to the Commandment which says <"You are to love your
 fellow man just as you love yourself,"> you are acting rightly.
2:9 But if you are making distinctions between one man and
 another, you are guilty of sin, and are convicted by the Law as
 offenders.

2:10 A man who has kept the Law as a whole, but has /1 failed to
 keep some one command, has become guilty of violating all.
2:11 For He who said, <"Do not commit adultery,"> also said,
 <"Do not commit murder,"> and if you are a murderer, although
 not an adulterer, you have become an offender against the Law.
2:12 Speak and act as those should who are expecting to be
 judged by the Law of freedom.
2:13 For he who shows no mercy will have judgement given against
 him without mercy; but mercy triumphs over judgement.
2:14 What good is it, my brethren, if a man professes to have
 faith, and yet his actions do not correspond? Can such faith
 save him?
2:15 Suppose a Christian brother or sister is poorly clad or
 lacks daily food,
2:16 and one of you says /2 to them, /3 "I wish you well; /4
 keep yourselves warm and well fed," and yet you do not give
 them what they need; what is the use of that?
2:17 So also faith, if it is unaccompanied by obedience, has no
 life in it--so long as it stands alone.
2:18 Nay, some one will say, "You have faith, I have actions:
 prove to me your faith apart from corresponding actions and I
 will prove mine to you by my actions.
2:19 You believe that /5 God is one, and you are quite right:
 evil spirits also believe this, and shudder."
2:20 But, idle boaster, are you willing to be taught how it is
 that faith apart from obedience is worthless? Take the case of
 Abraham our forefather.
2:21 Was it, or was it not, because of his actions that he was
 declared to be righteous as the result of his having offered up
 his son Isaac upon the altar?
2:22 /6 You notice that his faith was co-operating with his
 actions, and that by his actions his faith was perfected;
2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, <"And Abraham
 believed God, and his faith was placed to his credit as
 righteousness,"> and he received the name of `God's friend.'

2:24 You all see that it is because of actions that a man is
 pronounced righteous, and not simply because of faith.
2:25 In the same way also was not the notorious sinner Rahab
 declared to be righteous because of her actions when she
 welcomed the /1 spies and hurriedly helped them to escape
 another way?
2:26 For /2 just as a human body without a spirit is lifeless,
 so also faith is lifeless if it is unaccompanied by obedience.
3:1 Do not be eager, my brethren, for many among you to become
 teachers; for you know that we teachers shall undergo severer
 judgement.
3:2 For we often /3 stumble and fall, all of us. If there is any
 one who never stumbles in speech, that man has reached maturity
 of character and is able to curb his whole nature.
3:3 /4 Remember that we put the horses' bit into their mouths to
 make them obey us, and so we turn their whole bodies round.
3:4 So too with ships, great as they are, and often driven along
 by strong gales, yet they can be steered with a very small
 rudder in whichever direction the caprice of