Testing Your Faith
1 James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve [Hebrew] tribes [scattered abroad among the Gentiles] in the dispersion: Greetings (rejoice)!
2 Consider it nothing but joy, mybrothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials.
3 Be assured that the testing of your faith [through experience] produces endurance [leading to spiritual maturity, and inner peace].
4 And let endurance have its perfect resultanddo a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed [in your faith], lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom [to guide him through a decision or circumstance], he is to ask of [our benevolent] God, who gives to everyone generously and without rebukeorblame, and it will be given to him.
6 But he must ask [for wisdom] in faith, without doubting [God’s willingness to help], for the one who doubts is like a billowing surge of the sea that is blown about and tossed by the wind.
7 For such a person ought not to thinkorexpect that he will receive anything [at all] from the Lord,
8 beinga double-minded man, unstableandrestless in all his ways [in everything he thinks, feels, or decides].
9 Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position [as a born-again believer, called to the true riches and to be an heir of God];
10 and the rich manis to gloryin being humbled [by trials revealing human frailty, knowing true riches are found in the grace of God], for like the flower of the grass he will pass away.
11 For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; its flower falls off andits beauty fades away; so too will the rich man, in the midst of his pursuits, fade away.
12 Blessed [happy, spiritually prosperous, favored by God] is the man who is steadfast under trialandperseveres when tempted; for when he has passed the testandbeen approved, he will receive the [victor’s] crown of life whichthe Lordhas promised to those who love Him.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God” [for temptation does not originate from God, but from our own flaws]; for God cannot be tempted by [what is] evil, and He Himself tempts no one.
14 But each one is tempted when he is dragged away, enticedandbaited [to commit sin] by his own [worldly] desire (lust, passion).
15 Then when the illicit desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin has run its course, it gives birth to death.
16 Do not be misled, my beloved brothers and sisters.
17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], in whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadowcast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes].
18 It was of His own will that He gave us birth [as His children] by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits of His creatures [a prime example of what He created to be set apart to Himself–sanctified, made holy for His divine purposes].
19 Understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Let everyone be quick to hear [be a careful, thoughtful listener], slow to speak [a speaker of carefully chosen words and], slow to anger [patient, reflective, forgiving];
20 for the [resentful, deep-seated] anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God [that standard of behavior which He requires from us].
21 So get rid of all uncleanness andall that remains of wickedness, and with a humble spirit receive the word [of God] which is implanted [actually rooted in your heart], which is able to save your souls.
22 But prove yourselves doers of the word [actively and continually obeying God’s precepts], and not merely listeners [who hear the word but fail to internalize its meaning], deluding yourselves [by unsound reasoning contrary to the truth].
23 For if anyone only listens to the wordwithout obeying it, he is like a man who looks very carefully at his natural face in a mirror;
24 foroncehe has looked at himself and gone away, he immediately forgetswhat he looked like.
25 But he who looks carefully into the perfect law, thelawof liberty, and faithfully abides by it, not having become a [careless] listener who forgets butan active doer [who obeys], he will be blessedandfavored by God in what he does [in his life of obedience].
26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious [scrupulously observant of the rituals of his faith], and does not control his tongue but deludes hisownheart, this person’s religion is worthless (futile, barren).
27 Pure and unblemished religion [as it is expressed in outward acts] in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visitandlook after the fatherless and the widows in their distress, and to keep oneself uncontaminated by the [secular] world.