James.
James 1.
1 James, slave of God and of Master Christ Jesus.
To the 12 tribes in the diaspora. Hello.
2 My fellow Christians, whenever you’re surrounded by the various things which challenge you,
command everything to be joy.
3 Realize the reliability of your faith is achieved by persistence.
4 Persistence has to be seen to the end, so in the end it’d be solid and leave nothing out.
5 But if any one of you leaves out wisdom, ask God.
He gives to everyone liberally, not scoldingly. Wisdom will be granted by him.
6 Ask!—in faith, never as a skeptic:
Skepticism’s like windblown, fanned-out waves of the sea.
7 That person doesn’t figure they’ll receive anything from the Master,
8 like a man of two minds, standing for nothing in every way he goes.
9 Emphasize humility, fellow Christians, when you’re up;
10 wealthy Christians, when you’re down.
11 For wealth will pass away like grassflowers: The sun rose in its heat and dried up the grass.
Its flower fell, its appearance destroyed—likewise the wealthy shrivel up on their life journey.
12 A man who survives temptation is awesome:
Being tested, he’ll get life’s crown, which God promised those who love him.
13 You who are tempted: Never say, “I’m tempted by God.”
God’s not tempted to do evil: He tempts nobody.
14 Each person is tempted, lured away, baited, by their own desires.
15 Then the desire conceives and gives birth to sin; the full-grown sin produces death.
16 Don’t be led astray, my beloved fellow Christians: 17 Every good gift,
every perfect present from above, came down from the Father of heavenly lights.
There’s no phase, no seasonal shadows, with him.
18 His will birthed us by his truthful word, for us to be one of the firstfruits of his creation.
19 Know this, my beloved fellow Christians: Be quick to listen, everybody. Slow to speak, slow to anger.
20 Men’s anger doesn’t empower God’s rightness.
21 So gently get rid of every filthy thing, every evil advantage.
Pick up the message which is implanted with the power to save your souls.
22 Become doers of the word, and not merely self-deceiving hearers,
23 because if you’re a hearer of the word, yet do nothing,
you’re like a man studying the face he was born with in a mirror:
24 He studies himself… and goes away, and quickly sets aside what sort of person he is.
25 You who look down into the perfect, freedom-giving Law, and remain there,
aren’t becoming forgetful hearers, but doers of good work.
What you’re doing is awesome.
26 If anyone who doesn’t rein in their tongue thinks they’re religious,
they’ve deluded their own mind instead. This “religion” is meaningless.
27 Genuine, untainted religion before our God and Father is this:
Supervise single mothers and their children when they’re suffering.
Keep yourself spotless in this world.
James 2.
1 My fellow Christians, don’t act prejudicially.
Not in the faith of our glorious master, Christ Jesus.
2 When a man with a gold ring and showy clothing enters your synagogue,
and a poor person in dirty clothes also enters,
3 and you covetously eye the wearer of showy clothing and say, “You sit here in the good spot,”
and tell the poor person, “You stand there,” or “Sit under my footstool”:
4 Isn’t this prejudice among you?
Have you become critics with evil schemes?
5 Listen, my beloved fellow Christians: Hasn’t God chosen the poor in this world
who are wealthy in faith, who proclaim they love him, as inheritors of his kingdom?
6 And you dishonor the poor.
Don’t the wealthy exploit you and drag you into court?
7 Don’t they slander Jesus’s good name, who called upon you?
8 But if you fulfill the kingdom’s Law, you do right.
(“You’ll love your neighbor as yourself,” Lv 19.18 according to scripture.)
9 If you show favoritism, your disgraceful, backslider-like behavior produces sin,
according to the Law.
10 For whoever’d keep the the entire Law could stumble in one command—
and become guilty of breaking the whole.
11 He who said “Don’t adulter” Ex 20.14 also said “Don’t murder.” Ex 20.13
If you don’t adulter, yet you do murder, you become a Law-breaker.
12 That’s what you say; that’s what you do,
as if it’s how the Law of freedom is meant to judge.
13 Because judgment is merciless when you don’t practice mercy.
But mercy is emphasized over judgment!
14 What’s the point, my fellow Christians, when someone says they “have faith,”
yet doesn’t take action? Can “faith” save them?
15 When a Christian brother or sister starts to become needy and go without daily food,
16 and one of you tells them, “Go in peace: I declare you to be warm and full!”
yet doesn’t give them anything useful for their body, what’s the point?
17 This “faith,” when it’s all by itself and takes no action, is dead.
18 But someone’ll say you have faith—and I have works.
Show me your workless “faith.” I’ll show you, from my works, faith.
19 You have faith that God is One. Good job!
The demons also have this faith—and it grates on them.
20 Do you want to know, you silly people, how faith without works is useless?
21 Our ancestor Abraham. Wasn’t he justified by works
when he brought his son Isaac up to the altar?
22 You see, since Abraham’s faith cooperated with his works,
the faith was achieved through the works,
23 and the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham trusted God,
and God calculated it as righteous,” Ge 15.6 and he was called God’s friend.
24 You also see, since a person is justified by works, it’s not only by “faith.”
25 Likewise Rahab the whore: Wasn’t she justified by works
when she received the king’s agents and sent them out on another road?
26 For just as the body without a spirit is dead,
so too the faith without works is dead.
James 3.
1 My fellow Christians, don’t become “great teachers,”
since you’ve known we’ll receive great criticism, 2 for everybody stumbles.
If anybody doesn’t stumble in the message, this is a mature man, able to bridle the whole body.
3 If we put bridles in horses’ mouths so they heed us, we steer their whole body.
4 Look also at ships: They’re large, and driven by strong winds,
steered wherever the urge of the pilot wants—by the smallest rudder.
5 Likewise the tongue: It’s a little body part, but claims huge things.
Look how it lights a big fire on a big forest! 6 The tongue is fire.
The tongue places an unrighteous world in our body parts, staining the whole body,
setting the cycle of creation on fire, set on fire by ge-Henna.
7 Every sort of beast, bird, reptile, and sea life is and has been tamed by every sort of person.
8 No person’s been able to tame the tongue. It’s unstable evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With the tongue we praise the Master and Father;
with it we call down curses on people who were created in God’s likeness.
10 Praise and cursing come out of the same mouth.
My fellow Christians it ought not be this way with such things.
11 A spring of water from the same cave doesn’t bubble up both fresh and bitter water.
12 My fellow Christians, figs can’t be produced by an olive tree.
Nor vines produce figs, nor salt make water sweet.
13 You who are wise and understanding: Show it—
by a good lifestyle, their good works, in wise gentleness.
14 If you have bitter zeal and populism in your minds, don’t downplay and lie about the truth:
15 This “wisdom” doesn’t come down from above—but from nature, the mind, or demons.
16 Where there’s zeal and argumentativeness, there’s chaos and petty plans.
17 Wisdom from above, first of all, is religious. Then peaceful.
Reasonable. Convincing. Full of mercy and good fruit. Not judgmental. Not hypocrisy.
18 Righteous fruit is sown by peace, and harvests peace.
James 4.
1 Where do the wars and battles all of you have, come from? Not there!
They come out of your hedonism, the “field experience” of your limbs.
2 You all covet, and don’t have. You murder, act in zeal, yet you’re powerless to achieve it.
You fight and wage war, yet don’t have—because you don’t ask.
3 You ask, yet don’t receive because you ask for evil!
—so you might spend it on your hedonism.
4 Adultresses! Haven’t you known friendship with the world is enmity with God?
So whoever wants to be a friend of the world, is rendered God’s foe.
5 Or do you imagine the scripture is irrelevant?
It says, “The spirit settled in you, leans towards envy.”
6 Hence God greatly gives us grace. This is why the the scripture says,
“God sets himself against the proud, and gives grace to the humble.” Pr 3.34
7 So submit to God. Oppose the devil and it’ll run away from you.
8 Connect with God and he’ll connect with you.
Clean the hands, sinners. Purify the hearts, two-minded.
9 Suffer hardship. Mourn. Weep.
Your laughter: Switch it to mourning. Your joy, to gloom.
10 Be low before the Master, and he’ll exalt you.
11 Don’t badmouth one another, fellow Christians.
One who badmouths or criticizes a fellow Christian, badmouths and criticizes the Law.
If you criticize the Law, you aren’t a doer of the Law, but a critic.
12 Only one is the Law-giver and critic, with power to save and destroy.
Who are you to be your neighbor’s critic?
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we’ll go to the city here;
we’ll work there a year; we’ll trade and profit.”
14 You who don’t know how tomorrow or life will turn out—
you’re vapor. You appear briefly, then you pass away.
15 Say this instead: “When the Master wants, we’ll live—and do this or that.”
16 Currently you all emphasize your phony plans, and all such emphasis is evil.
17 So when one knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to them it’s sin.
James 5
1 Come now, wealthy Christians: Lament loudly about the sufferings which you’re going through.
2 Your wealth has decayed. Your clothes became moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and silver have tarnished. Their poison will be your testimony:
It’ll eat your flesh like fire. You stockpiled for the last days.
4 Look at the wages of the workers who reap your fields—withheld by you, so they cry out.
The reapers’ roar has entered the ear of the Lord of War.
5 You all lived comfortably, luxuriously, on the earth. You fed your hearts on the day of slaughter.
6 You all condemned, murdered the Righteous One, who doesn’t resist you.
7 So be patient, fellow Christians, till the Master’s second coming.
Look, the farmer awaits the land’s precious fruit,
patient about it till they can get early- and late-season rain.
8 Be patient yourselves as well. Strengthen your minds:
The Master’s second coming has come near.
9 Don’t complain about one another, Christians, so you won’t judge.
Look: The real Judge has been standing at the gate.
10 Christians, follow the example of the prophets’ suffering and patience.
They spoke in the Master’s presence.
11 Look, we consider those who’ve endured to be awesome
—you pay attention to Job’s endurance; you saw the Master’s death—
for the Master is very compassionate and merciful.
12 Before everything, my fellow Christians, don’t swear.
Neither by heaven, nor earth, nor any other oath.
For you, yes means yes; no, no.
13 Pray for anyone who’s suffering among you.
Sing praise when anyone’s cheered up.
14 When anyone’s weak among you, summon the church’s elders.
Pray for them, anointing them with olive oil in the Master’s name.
15 The request of faith will save the weary. The Master will raise them.
If they’d committed sins, he’ll forgive them.
16 So confess these sins to one another:
Make requests for one another, so you can be cured.
A moral, energetic petition is very mighty.
17 Elijah was a human, same as us.
He prayed a prayer so it didn’t rain,
and it didn’t rain for three years six months.
18 He prayed again, and heaven gave rain,
and the earth sprouted its fruit.