Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles

1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the dispersion, health:

2Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into various temptations;

3Knowing that the trying of your faith works patience:

4But let patience have its perfect work, so that ye may be perfect and entire, in nothing deficient.

5But if any of you be deficient in wisdom, let him ask it fromGod, who giveth to all freely, and does not upbraid: and it shall be given to him.

6But let him ask in faith, by no means doubting; for he who doubts, is like a wave of the sea, which by the wind is driven and tossed to and fro.

7Let not, then, that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord.

8A man of a double mind is unstable in all his ways.

9Now, let a brother who is low, rejoice in his exaltation; and the rich in his lowness:

10Because as a flower of grass shall he pass away:

11For the sun rises with heat and withers the grass, and the flower falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes; so also shall the rich fade away in his riches.

12Blessed isthe man, who endures temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life: which the Lord hath promised to them who love him.

13Let no one, when he is tempted, say, “By God I am tempted:” for God cannot be tempted by evils, nor does he tempt any one.

14But every one is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lusts, and is ensnared.

15Then lust, having conceived, brings forth sin; and sin, being perfected, begets death.

16Do not err, my beloved brethren:

17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change nor shadow of turning.

18Of his own will has he begotten us by the word of truth, that we might be some firstfruits of his creatures.

19Let every man, therefore, my beloved brethren, be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

20For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

21Layingaside then all filthiness and redundancy of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

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

23For if any one be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks on his natural face in a glass;

24For he hath looked on himself and departed, and hath immediately forgotten what manner of man he was.

25But he who attentively looks on the perfect law of liberty and continues to doso,--this man,being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, shall be blessed in his work.

26If any one seems to be religious among you and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, his religion is vain.

27Pure religion and undefiled before God even the Father, is this,--To visit the orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep himself unspotted from the world.