James 3-5

American Standard Version

3 Be not many of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive ^[a]heavier judgment. ² For in many things we all stumble. If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. ³ Now if we put the horses’ bridles into their mouths that they may obey us, we turn about their whole body also. ⁴ Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, are yet turned about by a very small rudder, whither the impulse of the steersman willeth. ⁵ So the tongue also is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, ^[b]how much wood is kindled by how small a fire! ⁶ And the tongue is ^[c]a fire: ^[d]the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of ^[e]nature, and is set on fire by ^[f]hell. ⁷ For every ^[g]kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed ^[h]by ^[i]mankind: ⁸ but the tongue can no man tame; it is a restless evil, it is full of deadly poison. ⁹ Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God: ¹⁰ out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. ¹¹ Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter? ¹² can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet.

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? let him show by his good life his works in meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if ye have bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, glory not and lie not against the truth. ¹⁵ This wisdom is not a wisdom that cometh down from above, but is earthly, ^[j]sensual, ^[k]devilish. ¹⁶ For where jealousy and faction are, there is confusion and every vile deed. ¹⁷ But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without ^[l]variance, without hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace ^[m]for them that make peace.

4 Whence come wars and whence come fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members? ² Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and ^[n]covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not. ³ Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures. ⁴ Ye ^[o]adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or think ye that the scripture ^[p]speaketh in vain? ^[q]Doth the spirit which ^[r]he made to dwell in us long unto envying? ⁶ But he giveth ^[s]more grace. Wherefore the scripture saith, ^[t]God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. ⁷ Be subject therefore unto God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye doubleminded. ⁹ Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall exalt you.

¹¹ Speak not one against another, brethren. He that speaketh against a brother, or judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. ¹² One only is the lawgiver and judge, even he who is able to save and to destroy: but who art thou that judgest thy neighbor?

¹³ Come now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain: ¹⁴ whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. ^15 [u]For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that. ¹⁶ But now ye glory in your vauntings: all such glorying is evil. ¹⁷ To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

5 Come now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. ² Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. ³ Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony ^[v]against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days. ⁴ Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. ⁵ Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. ⁶ Ye have condemned, ye have killed the righteous one; he doth not resist you.

⁷ Be patient therefore, brethren, until the ^[w]coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until ^[x]it receive the early and latter rain. ⁸ Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand. ⁹ Murmur not, brethren, one against another, that ye be not judged: behold, the judge standeth before the doors. ¹⁰ Take, brethren, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spake in the name of the Lord. ¹¹ Behold, we call them blessed that endured: ye have heard of the ^[y]patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful.

¹² But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by the heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath: but ^[z]let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; that ye fall not under judgment.

¹³ Is any among you suffering? let him pray. Is any cheerful? let him sing praise. ¹⁴ Is any among you sick? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, ^[aa]anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: ¹⁵ and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him. ¹⁶ Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working. ¹⁷ Elijah was a man of like ^[ab]passions with us, and he prayed ^[ac]fervently that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months. ¹⁸ And he prayed again; and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

¹⁹ My brethren, if any among you err from the truth, and one convert him; ^20 [ad]let him know, that he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.