James 1:26

Plain English Version

You might go to church and think you are really good, but if you can’t stop yourself from saying bad things, you are really just tricking yourself, and going to church for nothing.

Cross References

Psalm 34:13

If that’s what you want, don’t say bad things about other people, and don’t lie to them.

Mark 7:7

They have ceremonies for me, but, really, they rubbish me. You see, they teach rules that men made up themselves, and they tell everybody that those rules come from God.’

1 Corinthians 15:15

If that’s what you reckon, you are saying that we lied to you about God when we told you that he made Jesus Christ alive again. But you are not right.

1 Corinthians 15:2

And if you keep on believing that good news, God will save you. If you don’t keep on believing it, I reckon you didn’t believe it properly in the first place.

1 Corinthians 3:18

Some of you mob think you are really smart, but you are thinking wrong, like the people of this world that don’t know God. So stop tricking yourselves. Instead, you have to think God’s way. Other people might think you are fools, but really, you will be wise.

Galatians 2:6

The Christians in Jerusalem reckon their leaders are important, but it doesn’t matter to me if they are important, or not. God treats everybody the same way. Anyway, those leaders agreed that I was already teaching the true message about Jesus, and that I wasn’t leaving anything out.

Galatians 2:9

The 3 very important leaders in Jerusalem were James, Peter and John. They heard how much God helped Barnabas and me in our work, and they understood that God gave me this special job. Then they were happy with us, and they shook hands with us to show that they are our friends. They agreed that we had to go to people that are not Jews, and they themselves had to go to the Jewish people.

Galatians 3:4

You believed the good news about Jesus, so then you went through a lot of trouble. Was that all for nothing? I hope it was not for nothing.

Galatians 6:3

Don’t think that you are too important to help other Christians. If you are not very important, but you reckon you are really important, then you are just tricking yourself.

Ephesians 4:29

And don’t swear, or say any bad talk. Only say good things that will help people, and say things that they need to hear. When you do that, your words will be good for the people that hear you.

Ephesians 5:4

And don’t talk in a dirty way or tell dirty jokes, and don’t say stupid things. It’s not right for God’s people to talk like that. Instead, when you talk, you have to thank God a lot.

Colossians 4:6

And talk to them in a good way, to get them interested in your message. And be ready to answer their questions.

James 1:19

Listen, my Christian friends, you have to be ready to listen to other people, and you have to stop and think before you say anything yourself. Stop and think before you get angry.

James 1:22

And don’t just listen to that word from God, but you have to do everything it says too. If you don’t do the things it says, you will just trick yourself.

James 2:20

If you don’t do the things that Jesus says, it is no good to say that you believe in him. If you don’t know much, and if you want to argue with me, just think about the story of Abraham, our grand-father that lived a long time ago. God told Abraham to give him his son Isaac. To do that, Abraham had to kill Isaac, and burn his body on a table made of stones. Abraham believed that somehow God would make it end up all right, so he started to do that hard thing that God said. He was going to kill Isaac. But just then, God told him to stop. You see, God says this in his book, “Abraham believed what God said, so God was really happy with him, and told him, ‘You believe me, so now I’m saying you are properly good, like you never did anything wrong.’ ” And that is how it happened. In another place it says that Abraham not only believed God, but he also did that hard thing God told him to do, so Abraham was a friend of God.

1 Peter 3:10

God says this in his book, “If you want to live well and be happy, don’t talk badly about other people, and don’t lie to them.