James 1-5

Worldwide English (New Testament)

1 I am James. I am a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. I send greetings to all of God's people wherever they live.

² My brothers, be very happy when you are tested by having troubles of many kinds.

³ You know this, that when you prove you believe, you become stronger to take troubles.

⁴ But you must keep on being strong to take trouble. Then you will be all right in every way. You will not need anything more.

⁵ If any of you need to be wise, ask God to make you wise. He gives plenty of wisdom to all people. He is not angry because you ask him. He will make you wise.

⁶ But when you ask, you must believe that God will do it. You must not doubt and think, `Perhaps God will not do it.' A person who doubts is like a wave on the sea. The wind drives it this way and that way.

⁷ That person must not think that he will get anything from the Lord.

⁸ A person like that has two minds. He cannot go straight in any of his ways.

⁹ A Christian brother who is poor should be glad: he is in a high place now he is a Christian.

¹⁰ A Christian brother who is rich should be glad: he is in a low place now he is a Christian. A rich man will pass away like a flower on the grass.

¹¹ The sun shines and is very hot. Then the grass dries and its flower falls off. It was nice at first, but now it is not nice any more. In the same way, the rich man will die while he is going around trying to make money.

¹² God will bless any man who is strong to take his trouble, when he is being tested. When he has proved he is strong, he will live for ever. That is what the Lord has promised to those who love him.

¹³ No one who wants to do something wrong should say, `God is trying to make me do this wrong thing.' God cannot do anything wrong.

¹⁴ It is their own heart which is wrong. That is why he wants to do something wrong. It fools him.

¹⁵ Then the wrong in his heart makes him do the wrong thing. And the wrong thing he has done leads to death.

¹⁶ My dear brothers, do not fool yourselves.

¹⁷ Every good thing and every fine gift comes from heaven. It comes from the Father of all light. He does not change and he makes no shadow by turning.

¹⁸ He made us his children because he wanted us. He made us his children by giving us his true word. He made us his children so that we would be the first and best of all he made.

¹⁹ My dear brothers, do not forget this. Every man should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to be angry.

²⁰ When a man is angry, he does not do what God says is right.

²¹ So stop all your dirty living. Stop doing so many wrong things. Listen quietly to the word that has been put in your hearts. It is able to save you.

²² But obey God's word. Do not just listen to it. If you just listen to it, you fool yourselves.

²³ Anyone who just listens to the word, and does not obey it, is like a man who looks at his face in a looking glass.

²⁴ He looks at himself and goes away, and right away he forgets what he looked like.

²⁵ But there is a law that is all right. It sets people free from their old ways. Anyone who looks into that law and remembers it, is happy because he obeys the law. He does not just listen to the law and forget it, but he obeys what the law says.

²⁶ Some of you think that you are doing what God wants. But you are not careful what you say. If you are like that, you are fooling yourself. And you are not doing what God wants.

²⁷ This is what God the Father wants. It is clean and right. Go and help those who have no father and mother. Go and help widow women whose husbands are dead. These people have troubles. And keep yourself clean from the wrong things in the world.

2 My brothers, you believe in our Lord, the wonderful Jesus Christ. So you must not think one man is better than another.

² A man comes in to your church meeting. He has a gold ring and wears fine clothes. A poor man also comes in. He wears old clothes.

³ You look at the man who wears fine clothes. And you say to him, `Sit here on this good chair.' But you say to the poor man, `Stand over there,' or you say, `Sit on the floor by my feet.'

⁴ If you do these things, you think some people are better than others. You are wrong when you judge people this way.

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers. God has chosen people who are poor in this world. They believe very much. They will have a place in the kingdom which he has promised to give to those who love him.

⁶ But you made the poor man ashamed. Is it not the rich people who trouble you? Are not they the ones who take you to court?

⁷ Are not they the ones who say wrong things about the good name you have?

⁸ The holy writings say, `Love your neighbour as you love yourself.' If you obey this law of your King you do well.

⁹ But if you think one man is better than another, that is wrong. The law says you are a bad person.

¹⁰ Anyone who obeys the law, but then breaks one of the laws, has broken all the laws.

¹¹ God made the law, `Do not use sex wrongly.' God also made the law, `Do not kill'. If you do not have wrong sex, but you kill, you have broken the law.

¹² There is a law that makes people free. It is the law of showing kindness. Always talk and live like men who will be judged by that law.

¹³ When God judges, he will not be kind to a person who has not been kind. It is better to be kind than it is to judge people.

¹⁴ My brothers, perhaps a man says, `I believe.' What good is that if he does not do anything? Can just believing save him?

¹⁵ Perhaps a brother or a sister needs clothes and has no food.

¹⁶ Perhaps one of you says to them, `God bless you. Be warm. Eat all you want.' But what good is that if you do not give them what they need for their bodies?

¹⁷ Believing is like that. If it does not do anything it is no good. Belief by itself is dead.

¹⁸ In that case someone may say, `You believe. And I do good things. Try to show me that you believe without doing any acts of kindness. I will show you that I believe by doing acts of kindness.'

¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. That is right. But even the bad spirits believe that. And they shake with fear.

²⁰ You are foolish! Believing is no good if it does not do anything good. Do you want to know that for sure?

²¹ Look at Abraham. God called our father Abraham a good man. This was because he gave his son Isaac to God on the holy table for a sacrifice.

²² You can see he believed. His faith and the things he did worked together. His believing was made all right because he did something.

²³ The words of the holy writings came true. They say, `Abraham believed God. And he was called a good man because of it.' In another place he was called `God's friend.'

²⁴ You see, a man is a good man because of the things he does, and not just because he believes.

²⁵ Rahab was a bad woman. But in the same way God called her a good woman because of something she did. She took the men into her house and then let them go out another way.

²⁶ A body is dead if it does not breathe. In the same way, believing is dead if it does not do anything good.

3 My brothers, not many of you should be teachers. You know that we who teach will be punished more than other people.

² We all do many wrong things. Any man who never says anything wrong is right in every way. He is able to make his whole body do what is right.

³ We put a piece of iron in the mouths of horses so they will obey us. Then we can make their whole bodies go where we want them to go.

⁴ Look at the big boats also. They are very big. The strong winds push them along. But a man uses a small piece of wood and makes the boat go where he wants it to go.

⁵ A person's tongue is like that. It is a small part of the body but it talks about big things. A very small fire can burn a big pile of wood!

⁶ The tongue is like a fire. It is like a whole world of trouble. It is a part of our body. And it makes our whole body bad. It burns up our whole life. And the fire that makes the tongue burn comes from hell.

⁷ People have been able to tame all kinds of animals, birds, snakes, and fish.

⁸ But no one can tame the tongue. It is a bad thing that will not be ruled. It is full of poison that can kill.

⁹ We praise our Lord and Father with our tongues. And we speak wrong words about people with our tongues, even though they were made like God.

¹⁰ Praising and wrong words come out of the same mouth! My brothers, this should not be so.

¹¹ Do good water and bad water both come from the same place?

¹² My brothers, do olives come from a fig tree? Or do figs come from a vine? No, they do not! Salt water and fresh water do not both come from the same place.

¹³ Who among you is wise and knows about things? He should show what he knows by his good life. He will not be proud because he is wise.

¹⁴ Are you a person who is very jealous? In your hearts you want to be better than others? Then stop being proud of yourself. Do not say what is not true.

¹⁵ God did not give you wisdom like that. But it comes from this world. It comes from people. It comes from bad spirits.

¹⁶ If people are jealous of others, their lives are not right. They do every kind of wrong thing to get what they want. They confuse and upset people.

¹⁷ First of all, when God makes people wise, they are holy. They do not fight. They are gentle. They listen to what other people say. They are very kind and do many good things. They do not quarrel. They do not say what is not true.

¹⁸ People who do not quarrel have peace. When there is peace, there is a good life.

4 Why do you fight and quarrel? It is because your feelings are fighting inside of you. That is why you fight.

² You want something but you cannot get it. Then you kill. You want something very much and cannot get it. So you quarrel and fight. You do not get it because you do not ask God for it.

³ You ask for it, but you do not get it, because you ask in a wrong way. You want to use it for yourselves and not for others.

⁴ You people promised God you would be true to him, but you did not stay true! Do you not know that if you love the world you hate God? Anyone who wants to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

⁵ The holy writings say, `God gave his Spirit to live in us. And that Spirit wants us for himself.' Do you think this means nothing?

⁶ But God helps you even more than that. That is why the holy writings say, `God fights against those who are proud, but he helps those who are not proud.'

⁷ So let God control you. Fight the devil and he will run away from you.

⁸ Come to God and he will come to you. You bad people, make your hands clean! You love what is good and what is wrong at the same time. Make your hearts clean.

⁹ Be sad about this, and cry. Turn your laughing into crying. Stop being happy. Be sad.

¹⁰ Do not be proud before the Lord. Then he will lift you up.

¹¹ My brothers, do not say wrong things about each other. A man who says wrong things about his brother or judges his brother is saying wrong things about God's law and he is judging God's law. If you judge the law, you are not obeying the law, but you are a judge.

¹² God made the law and he is the judge. And he is the one who can save you or kill you. Who are you that you should judge your neighbour?

¹³ Listen to me! You say, `Today or tomorrow we will go to that town. We will stay there a year. We will buy and sell and get rich.' But you do not know what will happen to you tomorrow.

¹⁴ What is your life like? It is like a cloud. It is here for a little while and then it is gone.

¹⁵ You should say `If the Lord wants to do it, we will live and do this or that.'

¹⁶ But now you talk about the big things you will do. All that kind of talk is wrong!

¹⁷ But if a person knows what he should do and he does not do it, he has done something wrong.

5 Rich people, listen to me! Cry loud and long because of the troubles you will have.

² Your things are spoiled. Bugs have eaten your clothes.

³ Your gold and silver are all spoiled. The wrong in them will prove that you have done wrong. The wrong will burn you up like fire. You have kept all these things and now time is almost ended.

⁴ Listen! Men worked in your fields to cut your grain and you did not pay them! That money shouts against you. The men who cut your harvest have called out to the Lord who has power and he has heard them.

⁵ You have had a good time on earth. You have done anything you wanted to do. Your lives are full of everything. Like a fat animal, you will soon be killed.

⁶ You have punished good people. You have killed them. And they do not stop you.

⁷ So brothers, take your troubles quietly and wait until the Lord comes. A farmer waits until the harvest grows from the ground. He waits for it a long time until it has had the first and second rain.

⁸ You must wait also. Keep your hearts strong, because the Lord will come soon.

⁹ Brothers, do not say mean things to each other. If you do, you will be judged. Listen, the judge is standing at the door now.

¹⁰ My brothers, look at the lives of the prophets of God who spoke in the name of the Lord. See the troubles they had. They took them and waited. Do as they did.

¹¹ God blesses those who take their troubles quietly and keep on believing. You have heard about Job's troubles and how he took them. And you have seen what the Lord did for him at the end. The Lord is very kind and helps people.

¹² My brothers, here is something that matters very much. When you make a promise do not ask heaven to hear it, or the earth, or any other thing. When you mean `Yes,' just say, `Yes.' And when you mean `No,' just say, `No.' If you do that, you will not be judged.

¹³ Is any one of you in trouble? He should talk to God about it. Is any one of you happy? He should sing songs of praise to God.

¹⁴ Is any one of you sick? He should call for the leaders of the church people. They should talk to God about him and put oil on him in the name of the Lord.

¹⁵ Because they talk to God, and believe, he will hear them. The sick man will be healed. The Lord will make him well again. If the sick man has done wrong things, the Lord will forgive him.

¹⁶ So tell one another the wrong things you have done. And tell God about each other's needs, so that you will be healed. When a good man talks to God, big things can be done.

¹⁷ Elijah was a man like us. He asked God not to let it rain. And for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

¹⁸ Then he talked to God again. And it rained. Plants grew on the earth.

¹⁹ My brothers, has one of you left the right way? Has another person brought him back again?

²⁰ Do not forget that the person who has brought a man back from his wrong ways will save that man from death. He will cover up many wrong things and be forgiven.