¹From James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: Greetings to all God's people scattered over the whole world.

Faith and Wisdom

²My friends, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way,

³for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure.

⁴Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

⁵But if any of you lack wisdom, you should pray to God, who will give it to you; because God gives generously and graciously to all.

⁶But when you pray, you must believe and not doubt at all. Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is driven and blown about by the wind.

^7-8If you are like that, unable to make up your mind and undecided in all you do, you must not think that you will receive anything from the Lord.

Poverty and Riches

⁹Those Christians who are poor must be glad when God lifts them up,

¹⁰and the rich Christians must be glad when God brings them down. For the rich will pass away like the flower of a wild plant.

¹¹The sun rises with its blazing heat and burns the plant; its flower falls off, and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way the rich will be destroyed while they go about their business.

Testing and Tempting

¹²Happy are those who remain faithful under trials, because when they succeed in passing such a test, they will receive as their reward the life which God has promised to those who love him.

¹³If we are tempted by such trials, we must not say, “This temptation comes from God.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.

¹⁴But we are tempted when we are drawn away and trapped by our own evil desires.

¹⁵Then our evil desires conceive and give birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

¹⁶Do not be deceived, my dear friends!

¹⁷Every good gift and every perfect present comes from heaven; it comes down from God, the Creator of the heavenly lights, who does not change or cause darkness by turning.

¹⁸By his own will he brought us into being through the word of truth, so that we should have first place among all his creatures.

Hearing and Doing

¹⁹Remember this, my dear friends! Everyone must be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to become angry.

²⁰Human anger does not achieve God's righteous purpose.

²¹So get rid of every filthy habit and all wicked conduct. Submit to God and accept the word that he plants in your hearts, which is able to save you.

²²Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice.

²³If you listen to the word, but do not put it into practice you are like people who look in a mirror and see themselves as they are.

²⁴They take a good look at themselves and then go away and at once forget what they look like.

²⁵But if you look closely into the perfect law that sets people free, and keep on paying attention to it and do not simply listen and then forget it, but put it into practice—you will be blessed by God in what you do.

²⁶Do any of you think you are religious? If you do not control your tongue, your religion is worthless and you deceive yourself.

²⁷What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering and to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world.

Warning against Prejudice

¹My friends, as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, you must never treat people in different ways according to their outward appearance.

²Suppose a rich man wearing a gold ring and fine clothes comes to your meeting, and a poor man in ragged clothes also comes.

³If you show more respect to the well-dressed man and say to him, “Have this best seat here,” but say to the poor man, “Stand over there, or sit here on the floor by my feet,”

⁴then you are guilty of creating distinctions among yourselves and of making judgments based on evil motives.

⁵Listen, my dear friends! God chose the poor people of this world to be rich in faith and to possess the kingdom which he promised to those who love him.

⁶But you dishonor the poor! Who are the ones who oppress you and drag you before the judges? The rich!

⁷They are the ones who speak evil of that good name which has been given to you.

⁸You will be doing the right thing if you obey the law of the Kingdom, which is found in the scripture, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

⁹But if you treat people according to their outward appearance, you are guilty of sin, and the Law condemns you as a lawbreaker.

¹⁰Whoever breaks one commandment is guilty of breaking them all.

¹¹For the same one who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Even if you do not commit adultery, you have become a lawbreaker if you commit murder.

¹²Speak and act as people who will be judged by the law that sets us free.

¹³For God will not show mercy when he judges the person who has not been merciful; but mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith and Actions

¹⁴My friends, what good is it for one of you to say that you have faith if your actions do not prove it? Can that faith save you?

¹⁵Suppose there are brothers or sisters who need clothes and don't have enough to eat.

¹⁶What good is there in your saying to them, “God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!”—if you don't give them the necessities of life?

¹⁷So it is with faith: if it is alone and includes no actions, then it is dead.

¹⁸But someone will say, “One person has faith, another has actions.” My answer is, “Show me how anyone can have faith without actions. I will show you my faith by my actions.”

¹⁹Do you believe that there is only one God? Good! The demons also believe—and tremble with fear.

²⁰You fool! Do you want to be shown that faith without actions is useless?

²¹How was our ancestor Abraham put right with God? It was through his actions, when he offered his son Isaac on the altar.

²²Can't you see? His faith and his actions worked together; his faith was made perfect through his actions.

²³And the scripture came true that said, “Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous.” And so Abraham was called God's friend.

²⁴You see, then, that it is by our actions that we are put right with God, and not by our faith alone.

²⁵It was the same with the prostitute Rahab. She was put right with God through her actions, by welcoming the Israelite spies and helping them to escape by a different road.

²⁶So then, as the body without the spirit is dead, also faith without actions is dead.

The True Righteousness

¹In conclusion, my friends, be joyful in your union with the Lord. I don't mind repeating what I have written before, and you will be safer if I do so.

²Watch out for those who do evil things, those dogs, those who insist on cutting the body.

³It is we, not they, who have received the true circumcision, for we worship God by means of his Spirit and rejoice in our life in union with Christ Jesus. We do not put any trust in external ceremonies.

⁴I could, of course, put my trust in such things. If any of you think you can trust in external ceremonies, I have even more reason to feel that way.

⁵I was circumcised when I was a week old. I am an Israelite by birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, a pure-blooded Hebrew. As far as keeping the Jewish Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee,

⁶and I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault.

⁷But all those things that I might count as profit I now reckon as loss for Christ's sake.

⁸Not only those things; I reckon everything as complete loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have thrown everything away; I consider it all as mere garbage, so that I may gain Christ

⁹and be completely united with him. I no longer have a righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by obeying the Law. I now have the righteousness that is given through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith.

¹⁰All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death,

¹¹in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life.

Running toward the Goal

¹²I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself.

¹³Of course, my friends, I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead.

¹⁴So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above.

¹⁵All of us who are spiritually mature should have this same attitude. But if some of you have a different attitude, God will make this clear to you.

¹⁶However that may be, let us go forward according to the same rules we have followed until now.

¹⁷Keep on imitating me, my friends. Pay attention to those who follow the right example that we have set for you.

¹⁸I have told you this many times before, and now I repeat it with tears: there are many whose lives make them enemies of Christ's death on the cross.

¹⁹They are going to end up in hell, because their god is their bodily desires. They are proud of what they should be ashamed of, and they think only of things that belong to this world.

²⁰We, however, are citizens of heaven, and we eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven.

²¹He will change our weak mortal bodies and make them like his own glorious body, using that power by which he is able to bring all things under his rule.

Instructions

¹So then, my friends, how dear you are to me and how I miss you! How happy you make me, and how proud I am of you!—this, dear friends, is how you should stand firm in your life in the Lord.

²Euodia and Syntyche, please, I beg you, try to agree as sisters in the Lord.

³And you too, my faithful partner, I want you to help these women; for they have worked hard with me to spread the gospel, together with Clement and all my other fellow workers, whose names are in God's book of the living.

⁴May you always be joyful in your union with the Lord. I say it again: rejoice!

⁵Show a gentle attitude toward everyone. The Lord is coming soon.

⁶Don't worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart.

⁷And God's peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus.

⁸In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable.

⁹Put into practice what you learned and received from me, both from my words and from my actions. And the God who gives us peace will be with you.

Thanks for the Gift

¹⁰In my life in union with the Lord it is a great joy to me that after so long a time you once more had the chance of showing that you care for me. I don't mean that you had stopped caring for me—you just had no chance to show it.

¹¹And I am not saying this because I feel neglected, for I have learned to be satisfied with what I have.

¹²I know what it is to be in need and what it is to have more than enough. I have learned this secret, so that anywhere, at any time, I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little.

¹³I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me.

¹⁴But it was very good of you to help me in my troubles.

¹⁵You Philippians know very well that when I left Macedonia in the early days of preaching the Good News, you were the only church to help me; you were the only ones who shared my profits and losses.

¹⁶More than once when I needed help in Thessalonica, you sent it to me.

¹⁷It is not that I just want to receive gifts; rather, I want to see profit added to your account.

¹⁸Here, then, is my receipt for everything you have given me—and it has been more than enough! I have all I need now that Epaphroditus has brought me all your gifts. They are like a sweet-smelling offering to God, a sacrifice which is acceptable and pleasing to him.

¹⁹And with all his abundant wealth through Christ Jesus, my God will supply all your needs.

²⁰To our God and Father be the glory forever and ever! Amen.

Final Greetings

²¹Greetings to each one of God's people who belong to Christ Jesus. The believers here with me send you their greetings.

²²All God's people here send greetings, especially those who belong to the Emperor's palace.

²³May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

The Words of Agur

¹These are the solemn words of Agur son of Jakeh: “God is not with me, God is not with me, and I am helpless.

²I am more like an animal than a human being; I do not have the sense we humans should have.

³I have never learned any wisdom, and I know nothing at all about God.

⁴Have any ever mastered heavenly knowledge? Have any ever caught the wind in their hands? Or wrapped up water in a piece of cloth? Or fixed the boundaries of the earth? Who are they, if you know? Who are their children?

⁵“God keeps every promise he makes. He is like a shield for all who seek his protection.

⁶If you claim that he said something that he never said, he will reprimand you and show that you are a liar.”