James 1 - Easy To Read Version

¹ Greetings from James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

² My brothers and sisters, you will have many kinds of troubles. But when these things happen, you should be very happy.

³ Why? Because you know that these things are testing your faith. And this will give you patience.

⁴ Let that patience work in you to give the result God wants. Then you will be mature and complete. You will be all that God wants you to be.

⁵ But if any of you needs wisdom, then you should ask God for it. God is generous. He enjoys giving to all people. So God will give you wisdom.

^6-8 But when you ask God, you must believe. Don’t doubt God. The person who doubts is like a wave in the sea. The wind blows the wave up and down. The person who doubts is like that wave.

⁹ Believers who are poor should be glad that God considers them so important.

¹⁰ Believers who are rich should be glad when bad things happen that make them humble. Why? Because even rich people will die as quickly as wild flowers:

¹¹ The sun rises and becomes hotter and hotter. The sun’s heat makes the plants very dry. The flowers fall off. The flowers were beautiful, but now they are dead. It is the same with rich people. While they are still making plans for their business, they will die.

¹² What great blessings there are for the person who is tempted and still continues strong. Why? Because after he has proved his faith, God will give him the reward of life forever. God promised this to all people who love him.

¹³ When a person is being tempted, he should not say, “God is tempting me.” Evil cannot tempt God. And God himself does not tempt any person.

¹⁴ It is the evil things a person wants that tempt that person. His own evil desire leads him away and holds him.

¹⁵ This desire causes sin. Then the sin grows and brings death.

¹⁶ My dear brothers and sisters, don’t be fooled about this.

¹⁷ Everything good comes from God. And every perfect gift is from God. These good gifts come down from the Father who made all the lights in the sky (sun, moon, stars). But God never changes \{like those lights\}. He is always the same.

¹⁸ God decided to give us life through the word of truth. He wanted us to be the most important of all the things he made.

¹⁹ My dear brothers and sisters, always be more willing to listen than to speak. Don’t become angry easily.

²⁰ A person’s anger does not help him live right like God wants.

²¹ So put out of your life every evil thing and every kind of wrong thing you do. Be humble and accept God’s teaching that is planted in your hearts. This teaching can save you.

²² Do what God’s teaching says; don’t just listen and do nothing. Why? Because when you only sit and listen, you are fooling yourselves.

²³ If you hear God’s teaching and do nothing, you are like this: You are like a man that looks at his face in the mirror.

²⁴ The man sees himself, but he does nothing. He goes away and quickly forgets how bad he looked.

²⁵ But you must not be like that. You must carefully study God’s perfect law that makes people free. You must continue to study it. You must listen to God’s teaching and not forget what you heard. Then you must obey what God’s teaching says. When you do this, it will make you truely happy.

²⁶ You might think you are religious (good). But if you say things you should not say, then you are fooling yourself. Your “religion” is worth nothing.

²⁷ The kind of religion (worship) that God accepts is this: caring for orphans {\cf2\super [2]} or widows {\cf2\super [3]} who need help, and keeping yourself free from the world’s \{evil\} influence. This is the kind of religion (worship) that God accepts as pure and good.