Testing Your Faith

1 ^[a]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, my ^[b]brothers 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 result and do 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 rebuke or blame, 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 think or expect that he will receive anything [at all] from the Lord, ⁸ being a double-minded man, unstable and restless 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 man is to glory in 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 and ^[c]its beauty fades away; so too will the rich man, in the midst of his pursuits, fade away.^(A)

¹² Blessed [happy, spiritually prosperous, favored by God] 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 [victor’s] crown of life which the Lord has 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, enticed and baited [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 shadow ^[d]cast 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 and ^[e]all 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 word ^[f]without obeying it, he is like a man who looks very carefully at his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴ for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he immediately forgets ^[g]what he looked like. ²⁵ But he who looks carefully into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and faithfully abides by it, not having become a [careless] listener who forgets but ^[h]an active doer [who obeys], he will be blessed and favored 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 his own heart, 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 visit and look after the fatherless and the widows in their distress, and to keep oneself uncontaminated by the [secular] world.

The Sin of Partiality

2 My fellow believers, do not practice your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of partiality [toward people—show no favoritism, no prejudice, no snobbery]. ² For if a man comes into your ^[i]meeting place ^[j]wearing a gold ring and ^[k]fine clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes also comes in, ³ and you pay special attention to the one who wears the ^[l]fine clothes, and say to him, “You sit here in this good seat,” and you tell the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down [on the floor] by my footstool,” ⁴ have you not discriminated among yourselves, and become judges with wrong motives? ⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters: has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and [as believers to be] heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? ⁶ But you [in contrast] have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress and exploit you, and personally drag you into the courts of law? ⁷ Do they not blaspheme the ^[m]precious name [of Christ] by which you are called?

⁸ If, however, you are [really] fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself [that is, if you have an unselfish concern for others and do things for their benefit]” you are doing well.^{(B) 9} But if you show partiality [prejudice, favoritism], you are committing sin and are convicted by the Law as offenders. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole Law but stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of [breaking] all of it. ¹¹ For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you have become ^[n]guilty of transgressing the [entire] Law.^{(C) 12} Speak and act [consistently] as people who are going to be judged by the law of liberty [that moral law that frees obedient Christians from the bondage of sin]. ¹³ For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; but [to the one who has shown mercy] mercy triumphs [victoriously] over judgment.

Faith and Works

¹⁴ What is the benefit, my fellow believers, if someone claims to have faith but has no [good] works [as evidence]? Can that [kind of] faith save him? [No, a mere claim of faith is not sufficient—genuine faith produces good works.] ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is without [adequate] clothing and lacks [enough] food for each day, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace [with my blessing], [keep] warm and feed yourselves,” but he does not give them the necessities for the body, what good does that do? ¹⁷ So too, faith, if it does not have works [to back it up], is by itself dead [inoperative and ineffective].

¹⁸ But someone may say, “You [claim to] have faith and I have [good] works; show me your [alleged] faith without the works [if you can], and I will show you my faith by my works [that is, by what I do].” ¹⁹ You believe that ^[o]God is one; you do well [to believe that]. The demons also believe [that], and shudder and bristle [in awe-filled terror—they have seen His wrath]!^{(D) 20} But are you willing to recognize, you foolish [spiritually shallow] person, that faith without [good] works is useless? ²¹ Was our father Abraham not [shown to be] justified by works [of obedience which expressed his faith] when he offered Isaac his son on the altar [as a sacrifice to God]?^{(E) 22} You see that [his] faith was working together with his works, and as a result of the works, his faith was completed [reaching its maturity when he expressed his faith through obedience]. ²³ And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and this [faith] was credited to him [by God] as righteousness and as conformity to His will,” and he was called the friend of God.^{(F) 24} You see that a man (believer) is justified by works and not by faith alone [that is, by acts of obedience a born-again believer reveals his faith]. ²⁵ In the same way, was Rahab the prostitute not justified by works too, when she received the [Hebrew] ^[p]spies as guests and protected them, and sent them away [to escape] by a different route?^{(G) 26} For just as the [human] body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works [of obedience] is also dead.