James 1

Wycliffe Bible

1 James, the servant of God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve kindreds, that be in scattering abroad, health.

² My brethren, deem ye all joy [guess ye all joy], when ye fall into diverse temptations,

³ witting, that the proving of your faith worketh patience;

⁴ and patience hath a perfect work, that ye be perfect and whole, and fail in nothing. [soothly patience hath a perfect work, that ye be perfect and whole, in nothing failing.]

⁵ And if any of you needeth wisdom, ask he of God, which giveth to all men largely [that giveth to all men largely], and upbraideth not; and it shall be given to him.

⁶ But ask he in faith, and doubt nothing [nothing doubting]; for he that doubteth, is like to a wave of the sea, which is moved and borne about of the wind [the which of wind is moved and borne about].

⁷ Therefore guess not that man, that he shall take any thing of the Lord.

⁸ A man double in soul is unstable in all his ways.

⁹ And a meek brother have glory in his enhancing. [Forsooth a meek brother glory in his enhancing.]

¹⁰ and a rich man in his lowness; for as the flower of grass he shall pass.

¹¹ The sun rose up with heat, and dried the grass, and the flower of it felled down, and the fairness of his face perished; and so a rich man withereth in his ways.^[a]

¹² Blessed is the man, that suffereth temptation; for when he shall be proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which God promised to men that love him.

¹³ No man when he is tempted, say, that he is tempted of God; for why God is not a tempter of evil things, for he tempteth no man.

¹⁴ But each man is tempted, drawn and stirred of his own coveting. [Soothly each man is tempted of his own coveting, drawn from reason, and snared, or deceived.]

¹⁵ Afterward coveting [Then coveting], when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin; but sin, when it is filled, engendereth death [soothly sin, when it is fulfilled, gendereth death].

¹⁶ Therefore [And so], my most dear-worthy brethren, do not ye err.

¹⁷ Each good gift, and each perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is none other changing, nor overshadowing of reward.^[b]

¹⁸ For willfully he begat us by the word of truth [Forsooth willfully he gendered us with the word of truth], that we be a beginning of his creature.

¹⁹ Know ye, my brethren most loved, be each man swift to hear, but slow to speak, and slow to wrath;

²⁰ for the wrath of man worketh not the rightwiseness of God.

²¹ For which thing cast ye away all uncleanness, and plenty of malice, and in mildness receive ye the word that is planted^[c], that may save your souls.

²² But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

²³ For if any man is an hearer of the word, and not a doer, this shall be likened to a man that beholdeth the face of his birth in a mirror [this shall be comparisoned, or likened, to a man beholding the cheer of his birth in a mirror];

²⁴ for he beheld himself, and went away, and at once he forgot which he was. [for he beheld himself, and went away, and anon he forgot what manner man he was.]

²⁵ But he that beholdeth into the law of perfect freedom, and dwelleth in it, and is not made a forgetful hearer, but a doer of work, this shall be blessed in his deed.

²⁶ And if any man guesseth himself to be religious, and refraineth not his tongue, but deceiveth his heart, the religion of him is vain.

²⁷ A clean religion, and unwemmed with God and the Father, is this, to visit fatherless and motherless children, and widows in their tribulation, and to keep himself undefouled from this world [and to keep himself undefouled from the world].