James 1 - Amplified Bible(AMP)

Testing Your Faith

1 James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes in the dispersion: Greetings (rejoice)!

2Consider it nothing but joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials.

3Be assured that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

4And let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed, lacking in nothing.

5If any of you lacks wisdom, he is to ask of God, who gives to everyone generously and without rebuke or blame, and it will be given to him.

6But he must ask in faith, without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a billowing surge of the sea that is blown about and tossed by the wind.

7For such a person ought not to think or expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,

8being a double-minded man, unstable and restless in all his ways.

9Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position;

10and the rich man is to glory in being humbled, for like the flower of the grass he will pass away.

11For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; its flower falls off and its beauty fades away; so too will the rich man, in the midst of his pursuits, fade away.

12Blessed is the man who is steadfast under trial and perseveres when tempted; for when he has passed the test and been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

13Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself tempts no one.

14But each one is tempted when he is dragged away, enticed and baited by his own desire (lust, passion).

15Then when the illicit desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin has run its course, it gives birth to death.

16Do not be misled, my beloved brothers and sisters.

17Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variation or shadow cast by His turning.

18It was of His own will that He gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.

19Understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

20for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

21So get rid of all uncleanness and all that remains of wickedness, and with a humble spirit receive the word which is implanted, which is able to save your souls.

22But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely listeners, deluding yourselves.

23For if anyone only listens to the word without obeying it, he is like a man who looks very carefully at his natural face in a mirror;

24for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he immediately forgets what he looked like.

25But he who looks carefully into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and faithfully abides by it, not having become a listener who forgets but an active doer, he will be blessed and favored by God in what he does.

26If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and does not control his tongue but deludes his own heart, this person’s religion is worthless (futile, barren).

27Pure and unblemished religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit and look after the fatherless and the widows in their distress, and to keep oneself uncontaminated by the world.