Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
. . .
My brothers, as you hold out your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, do not show favoritism.
Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in.
If you lavish attention on the man in fine clothes and say, “Here is a seat of honor,” but say to the poor man, “You must stand” or “Sit at my feet,”
have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?
. . .
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes of the Dispersion: Greetings.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. Jesus called them,
When they arrived, they went to the upper room where they were staying: Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.
For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself, for fear of those in the circumcision group.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.
And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.
Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth yielded its crops.
Peter motioned with his hand for silence, and he described how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. “Send word to James and to the brothers,” he said, and he left for another place.
And recognizing the grace that I had been given, James, Cephas, and John—those reputed to be pillars—gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.
Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
The brother in humble circumstances should exult in his high position.
But the one who is rich should exult in his low position, because he will pass away like a flower of the field.
For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its flower falls and its beauty is lost. So too, the rich man will fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
When Jesus realized that the Pharisees were aware He was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John
(although it was not Jesus who baptized, but His disciples),
He left Judea and returned to Galilee.
Now He had to pass through Samaria.
So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
. . .
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and declared, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.”
“What do you want Me to do for you?” He inquired.
They answered, “Grant that one of us may sit at Your right hand and the other at Your left in Your glory.”
“You do not know what you are asking,” Jesus replied. “Can you drink the cup I will drink, or be baptized with the baptism I will undergo?”
“We can,” the brothers answered. “You will drink the cup that I drink,” Jesus said, “and you will be baptized with the baptism that I undergo.
. . .
Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? Aren’t His sisters here with us as well?” And they took offense at Him.
When they had finished speaking, James declared, “Brothers, listen to me!
Simon has told us how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people to be His own.
The words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written:
‘After this I will return and rebuild the fallen tent of David. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it,
so that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does these things
. . .
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
“Honor your father and mother” (which is the first commandment with a promise),
“that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life on the earth.”
Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to control his whole body.
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can guide the whole animal.
Consider ships as well. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot is inclined.
In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it boasts of great things. Consider how small a spark sets a great forest ablaze.
. . .
but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.