James 1:19-27

Modern English Version

Hearing and Doing the Word

¹⁹ Therefore, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, ²⁰ for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. ²¹ Therefore lay aside all filthiness and remaining wickedness and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

²² Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man viewing his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴ He views himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. ²⁵ But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in his deeds.

²⁶ If anyone among you seems to be religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. ²⁷ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.