Let the humble brother glory in his exaltation and the rich brother in his humiliation, because he will be gone like the flower of the grass. The sun rises with its burning heat and shrivels the grass, and the flower falls to the ground and the beauty of its face is destroyed. Just so the rich man in his comings and goings will wither away.
Blessed is the man who endures trial, because when he passes the test he will win the wreath of life which the Lord promised to those who love him. Let no man who is tempted say: I ^ being tempted by God. For God is not tempted by evil things, and he himself tempts no one. Each man is tempted when he is attracted and seduced by his ownwn desire. Then the desire conceives and gives birth to sin, and the sin when it is full-grown br^^ forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good giving and every perfect gift comes from above, descending from the father of lights, in whom there is no change, nor any shadow of variation. He wilwilled it and brought us forth by the word of truth, for us to be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Know this, my beloved brothers: every man should be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of a man does not effect the righteousness of God. Putting aside, therefore, all filthiness and any excess of baseness, meekly accept the implanted word which can save your souls. Be practitioners of the word, not mere self-deceiving listeners. Since if one listens to the word but does not practice it, he is like a ^^ who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for he looks at himself and then goes on his way and forgets what he looked like. But one who gazes into the perfect law of freedom and abides by it; not a listener to something to be forgotten, but one who performs an act; that man will be blessed in his activity. If one believes that he is religious, but does not curb his tongue, and if he deceives himself, his religion counts for nothing. This is the pure and unde- filed worship before our God and Father: to care for orphans and widows in their afliction, and to keep oneself untarnished by the world.
My brothers, surely the faith you have in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ does not go with discrimination among persons? If a man wearing golden rings and shining clothes comes into your synagogue, and there also comes in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you look at the man wearing shining clothes and say: Sit here, in a place of honor, but say to the poor man: Stand, or else sit down there below my footstool, are you not discriminating among yourselves and being judges who give vicious opinions? Listen, my beloved brothers. Did not God choose out those who are poor in the things of the world but rich in faith and heirs to the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? But you despised the poor man. Are not the rich lords over you, and is it not they who drag you into the law courts? Is it not they who insult the noble name which has been bestowed upon you? If you fulfill the kingly law accordingly as scripture says: You shall love your neighbor as yourself; you are acting well. But if you discriminate among persons, you are committing a sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For anyone who obeys all the rest of the law but fails in one respect is guilty in all respects. He who said: You shall not commit adultery; also said: You shall not murder. But if you do not commit adultery but do murder, you are breaking the law. Speak and act as if you were about to be tried by the law of freedom. For him who acts without mercy, judgment is merciless. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
What good does it do, my brothers, if someone says that he has faith but does not have the acts of faith? Surely his faith will not save him? If a brother or a sister is naked and short of daily nourishment, and one of you says to them: Go in peace, keep warm and eat, but you do not give them what they need for their bodies, what good does it do? So even faith, if it does not have the acts of faith, is a dead thing in itself. But someone will say: You have faith, but I have actions. Show me your faith apart from your actions, and I will show my faith from my actions. You believe that there is one God? You do well to do so. Demons also believe this, and they shudder. But are you willing to understand, О empty man, that faith without acts is idle? Was not Abraham our father justified by his actions, when he offered up Isaac, his son, on the sacrificial altar? You see that his faith worked with his actions and through his actions his faith was made a thing complete, and so the scripture was fulfilled which says: Abraham believed God, and it was counted as righteousness in him, and he was called the friend of God. You see that a person is justified by his acts and not by faith alone. So likewise was not even Rahab the harlot justified by her action when she received the messengers and sent them off by the wrong way? As the body without spirit is a dead thing, so also faith without acts is a dead thing.
11 My brothers, not many of you should become teachers. We know that we teachers shall be given a stricter trial; for we all make many mistakes. But if a man makes no mistakes in what he says, he is a complete man and able also to control his entire body. If we put bits in the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can also control the entire body. Consider also ships, which, big as they are and driven by severe winds, are directed by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the steersman chooses. So also the tongue is a small part of the body but makes a big noise. Consider how small a fire ignites how great a forest. The tongue too is a fire; the tongue is appointed among the parts of our bodies as a whole world of wickedness, which stains the entire body and sets fire to the wheel of creation, and which itself is burned by Gehenna. For the whole world of beasts and birds and reptiles and sea creatures is subjected, and has been made subject, to the world of men. But no man can make a subject of the tongue. It is an evil that is never still, full of deadly poison. With it we praise the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who were born in the likeness of God; out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. This, my brothers, should not be so. Surely the spring does not run sweet and bitter from the same opening? Surely, my brothers, a fig tree cannot grow olives, nor a grape vine figs? Neither can a salt spring give sweet water.
Who among you is wise and knowledgeable? Let him show, with the gentleness that comes from wisdom, the actions of his good disposition. But if you have bitter envy and ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful, do not lie about the truth. That is not the wisdom which comes from above, but it is earthly, sensual, demonic; for where there is envy and ambition, there there is disorder and everything that is bad. But the wisdom which comes from above is, first of all, pure; it is also peaceful, forbearing. open to persuasion, filled with mercy and a good harvest, impartial, not hypocritical; the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
11 Where do these hostilities come from, where do these quarrels, which take place among you? Is it not from here, from the pleasures that go to war inside your bodies? You want, and do not have. You covet and murder, and cannot get; you quarrel and are at war. You do not have, because you do not ask; you do ask and do not receive, because you ask badly: for means to spend on your pleasures. Adulterous people, do you not know that love of the world is hatred of God? He who wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you th^k it is meaningless when the scripture says: He has jealous longings over the spirit which he lodged in us? But the grace he gives is stronger than that. Therefore scripture says: God is set against the proud but gives favor to the humble.