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New Testament: The Father's Life Version

The Letter of James

The New Testament. Emphasizing the different words for life in Greek, using the correct verb tenses regarding salvation and conveying the gospel as a much more dynamic message.

A "Grain Of Wheat" Ministries publication

Translated by David W. Dyer

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The Letter of James


JAMES CHAPTER 1

1:1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus the Anointed One, to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion: greetings.

1:2Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you are encircled with various trials, 1:3knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 1:4And let patience work in you until it is complete so that you may be mature and perfected, with not one virtue missing.

1:5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to everyone liberally without criticizing them and it will be given to him. 1:6But let him ask in faith without vacillating in his commitment to the Lord, for he who vacillates is like the waves of the sea driven by the wind and tossed to and fro. 1:7For that man should not imagine that he will receive anything from the Lord 1:8since he is a person of two minds and, therefore, is unstable in all his ways.

1:9But let the brother of low social status rejoice in his high spiritual ranking 1:10and the rich rejoice in his abasement because like the flowers of the grasses, his riches will disappear. 1:11For when the sun rises with the scorching wind and dries out the grass, it causes the flowers to fall off and the beauty of their “faces” is lost. So also the wealthy man, together with his activities, will fade away.

1:12Blessed is the man who endures trials, for after he has been thoroughly tested and approved, he will receive the crown of God’s life which the Lord promised to those who love him. 1:13Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God is incapable of being tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one. 1:14But each man is tempted when he is lured away by his own carnal cravings and caught in a trap. 1:15Then the carnal craving, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it grows up, produces death. 1:16Don’t be led away from the truth, my beloved brethren!

1:17Every good thing and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights with whom there is no uncertainty or shadow of deviation. 1:18Through his own decision he generated his own life in us through the word of truth so that we would be a kind of crowning glory of his creation.

1:19With this in mind, my beloved brethren, let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to get angry, 1:20for human anger does not result in the expression of God’s righteousness.

1:21Therefore, having put aside all immoral filth and abundant evil, receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to completely save your souls. 1:22But be those who put the word into practice and not someone who just hears it, deceiving yourself.

1:23For if anyone is merely a hearer of the word but doesn’t practice it, he is like a man who sees his natural face in a mirror: 1:24he sees himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what he looked like. 1:25But he who looks deeply into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and continues there – not being merely a forgetful hearer but one who practices it – this man will be blessed in what he does.

1:26If anyone among you thinks of himself as being “religious,” yet doesn’t keep a rein on his tongue but instead deceives himself, this man’s religion is useless.

1:27Religion which is spotless and pure before our God and Father is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself uncontaminated by the world.

JAMES CHAPTER 2

2:1My brethren, don’t discriminate between people in your walk in the faith of the glorious Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. 2:2For if someone comes into your gatherings wearing a gold ring and dressed in expensive clothing, and another also comes in who is poor, wearing dirty clothing, 2:3and you treat the one who wears the expensive clothing with special respect and say, “Sit here in a good place,” but you say to the poor man, “You can stand over there,” or “Sit here on the floor beside my chair,” 2:4then aren’t you showing favoritism among yourselves and so have become like corrupt judges?

2:5Listen my beloved brethren, didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who are loving him? 2:6But you have dishonored the poor man. Isn’t it the rich who oppress you and take you to court? 2:7Aren’t they the ones who slander the honorable name by which you are called?

2:8If, however, you fulfill the royal law according to the scriptures: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well. 2:9But if you discriminate between people, you commit sin and are exposed by the law as violators.

2:10For whoever keeps the whole law and yet errs in one point, he is as guilty as if he had broken all of them. 2:11For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you don’t commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a violator of the law.

2:12Therefore, you should speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. 2:13For the coming judgment will be without mercy for him who did not show any mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

2:14How is it beneficial, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but doesn’t do anything? Can this kind of “faith” be saving him? 2:15If a brother or sister is lacking clothing and doesn’t have enough to eat every day 2:16and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” and yet you don’t give them the things which are necessary for the body, of what use is it?

2:17In the same way faith, if it doesn’t result in actions, is exposed as being dead in itself. 2:18But someone might say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith without any actions and I will show you my faith through my actions.

2:19You believe that God is one? That’s good. The demons also believe this and shudder with fear. 2:20But would you be happy to know – you fruitless man – that faith separated from the resulting actions is dead?

2:21Wasn’t Abraham our father considered just by his actions when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? 2:22Here you see that faith was working together with his actions and that through these actions his faith was consummated. 2:23So the scripture was fulfilled which says: “And Abraham believed God and he was, therefore, considered righteous,” and, “He was called the friend of God.”

2:24You see then that a man is considered just by actions and not by faith alone. 2:25And in the same way also, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute considered just because of her actions when she received the messengers and then sent them off another way? 2:26For as the body separated from the spirit is just a corpse, in the same way faith separated from actions is dead.*

*James is teaching us here that dead faith justifies no one.

JAMES CHAPTER 3

3:1Don’t many of you be teachers, my brethren, knowing that we will receive the more severe judgment. 3:2For we all make many mistakes. If someone never sins in his words, he is a perfect man, able to control the rest of his body also.

3:3Now when we put bridles into the horses’ mouths so that they obey us, we direct their whole body also. 3:4Think about the ships too. Even though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the helmsman wants to go.

3:5So also the tongue is a little member yet boasts about great things. Look at how much wood is kindled by a small fire! 3:6And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is a whole world of sin among our members which defiles the entire person, often creating a whirling fire of trouble among others and is itself set on fire by Gehenna.

3:7For all kinds of animals and birds, even reptiles and marine life, can be tamed or have been tamed by man’s powers. 3:8But no one is able to tame the tongue. It is an unrestrained evil, full of deadly poison. 3:9With it we bless our God and Father and with it we curse other men who are made after the likeness of God.

3:10Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren, things should not be this way. 3:11Does a spring from the same source gush out both sweet water and bitter? 3:12My brethren, can a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine figs? Neither can one spring produce salt water and fresh water.

3:13Who is someone wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good life that his works are a product of the gentleness which wisdom brings.

3:14But if your heart is full of sharp envy {rivalry, ambition} and contention, don’t rise up against and pervert the truth to try to achieve your objectives. 3:15This wisdom is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, soulish, and demonic. 3:16For where envy {rivalry, ambition} and contention exist, there is confusion and every kind of evil work.

3:17But those who have the wisdom which comes from above are first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, easily persuaded, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and without hypocrisy. 3:18And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

JAMES CHAPTER 4

4:1Where do the disputes and contentions among you come from? Isn’t this the source? It comes from the desire for personal gain which produces this “war” among you.

4:2You want something but you don’t have it so you are jealous of others and even want to kill them. But when you still don’t get what you want, you quarrel and fight trying to get it. The truth is: you don’t have something because you don’t ask for it.

4:3Furthermore, you ask and don’t receive it because you ask wrongly, intending to waste it on self-satisfaction. 4:4You adulteresses, don’t you know that loving the things of this world puts you in opposition to God? Whoever, therefore, chooses to be friendly with the system of this world makes himself an enemy of God. 4:5Or do you imagine that the scripture has no purpose when it says “The Spirit which lives in us longs after our heart with jealousy?” 4:6But he gives abundant grace. Therefore, the scripture says: “God arrays himself in battle against the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

4:7Therefore, be submitted to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 4:8Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you who are vacillating in your commitment to the Lord. 4:9Be afflicted, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into sadness. 4:10Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you.

4:11Don’t speak against each other, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks according to the law and judges using the law. But if you judge using the law, you aren’t someone who keeps the law, but a judge. 4:12There is only One lawgiver and judge, even he who is able to rescue or to destroy. But who are you who judges your neighbor?

4:13Listen here you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to a certain city, spend a year there, do some business, and make money.” 4:14But the truth is you have no idea what will happen tomorrow. What is your life really? For you are just like a vapor which appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

4:15Instead you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will both continue to live and do this or that.” 4:16But now you boast with your self-confidence. All such boasting is evil. 4:17To him, therefore, who knows what is right to do and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

JAMES CHAPTER 5

5:1See here you rich! Weep and howl over the calamities that are coming upon you. 5:2Your riches have rotted and your clothes have been eaten by moth larva. 5:3Your gold and your silver are corroded. Their corrosion will be a testimony against you and will consume your flesh like fire. You have accumulated riches in the last days.

5:4Don’t you remember the wages of the laborers who reaped your fields, the ones whom you took advantage of and underpaid? Those laborers are crying out and the cries of the reapers have entered into the ears of the Lord of the heavenly armies.

5:5You have indulged yourselves on the earth and lived luxuriously. You have fattened up your hearts as in a day of slaughter [like a calf fattened in confinement]. 5:6You have condemned and murdered the righteous One and he didn’t resist you.

5:7With all this in mind, brethren, be patient until the appearing of the Lord. Look, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the later rain. 5:8You also be patient. Stand firm in your hearts for the coming of the Lord approaches.

5:9Brethren, don’t murmur against each other so that you won’t be judged. Look, the Judge is standing just outside the door.

5:10Brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. 5:11See, we call those who endured “blessed.” You have heard of the patience of Job and you know the end which the Lord planned, thus showing that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.

5:12But above all things, my brethren, do not swear an oath, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath, but let your “yes” mean “yes,” and your “no,” “no” so that you don’t fall into hypocrisy.

5:13Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 5:14Is anyone among you sick?* Let him call for the older, spiritually mature brothers of the gathering of the called-out ones and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 5:15And the prayer of faith will heal the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

*This Greek word can mean both physical and spiritual weakness.

5:16Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is very effective. 5:17Elijah was a man with similar passions as we have, yet he prayed fervently that it would not rain and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months. 5:18And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth its fruit.

5:19My brethren, if anyone among you deviates from the truth and someone helps him turn around, 5:20let him know that he who recovers a sinner from the delusion of his way saves a soul from death and covers a multitude of sins.

Words in this translation found in italics are words which are implied by the Greek text but do not represent actual words in the Greek text. This practice is common in almost all modern translations. Occasionally, this translator has added words to the translation which represent his own ideas and opinions which, although they are based on his own biblical understanding, are not part of the actual Greek text. Such words are enclosed in brackets, like this [ ]. The reader should understand these words as being the opinion of the translator. In contrast to this, the words in these braces { } indicate legitimate, alternative translations or explanations. Words within parentheses () are part of the original Greek text. Such parentheses are often used in other New Testament translations also.

End of The Letter of James

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