James 1
1 JAMES, A servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes scattered abroad [among the Gentiles in the dispersion]: Greetings (rejoice)!2 Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations.3 Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience.4 But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.5 If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him.6 Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind.7 For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything [he asks for] from the Lord,8 [For being as he is] a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), [he is] unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything [he thinks, feels, decides].9 Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his elevation [as a Christian, called to the true riches and to be an heir of God],10 And the rich [person ought to glory] in being humbled [by being shown his human frailty], because like the flower of the grass he will pass away.11 For the sun comes up with a scorching heat and parches the grass; its flower falls off and its beauty fades away. Even so will the rich man wither and die in the midst of his pursuits. 12 Blessed (happy, to be envied) is the man who is patient under trial and stands up under temptation, for when he has stood the test and been approved, he will receive [the victor’s] crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him.13 Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted from God; for God is incapable of being tempted by [what is] evil and He Himself tempts no one.14 But every person is tempted when he is drawn away, enticed and baited by his own evil desire (lust, passions).15 Then the evil desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully matured, brings forth death.16 Do not be misled, my beloved brethren.17 Every good gift and every perfect (free, large, full) gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of all [that gives] light, in [the shining of] Whom there can be no variation [rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [as in an eclipse].18 And it was of His own [free] will that He gave us birth [as sons] by [His] Word of Truth, so that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures [a sample of what He created to be consecrated to Himself].19 Understand [this], my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear [a ready listener], slow to speak, slow to take offense and to get angry.20 For man’s anger does not promote the righteousness God [wishes and requires].21 So get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness, and in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit receive and welcome the Word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save your souls.22 But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth].23 For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his [own] natural face in a mirror;24 For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like.25 But he who looks carefully into the faultless law, the [law] of liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he shall be blessed in his doing (his life of obedience).26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious (piously observant of the external duties of his faith) and does not bridle his tongue but deludes his own heart, this person’s religious service is worthless (futile, barren).27 External religious worship [religion as it is expressed in outward acts] that is pure and unblemished in the sight of God the Father is this: to visit and help and care for the orphans and widows in their affliction and need, and to keep oneself unspotted and uncontaminated from the world.
SANTIAGO 1
Saludo
1 Santiago, servidor de Dios y de Jesucristo, el Señor, saluda a todos los miembros del pueblo de Diost dispersos por el mundo.tI.— UNA FE AUTÉNTICA Y COHERENTE (1,2—2,26)
Fe y sabiduría
2 Alégrense profundamente, hermanos míos, cuando se sientan cercados por toda clase de dificultades.t 3 Es señal de que su fe, al pasar por el crisol de la prueba, está dando frutos de perseverancia. 4 Pero es preciso que la perseverancia lleve a feliz término su empeño, para que ustedes sean perfectos, cabales e intachables. 5 Si alguno de ustedes anda escaso de sabiduría, pídasela a Dios, que reparte a todos con larguezat y sin echarlo en cara, y él se la dará.t 6 Pero debe pedirla confiadamente, sin dudar, pues quien duda se parece a las olas del mar, que van y vienen agitadas por el viento.t 7 Nada puede esperar de Dios una persona así,
8 indecisa e inconstante en todo cuanto emprende.Pobreza y riqueza ante Dios
9 El hermano de humilde condición debe sentirse orgulloso de su dignidad.t 10 El rico, en cambio, que se precie de ser humilde, pues se desvanecerá como la flor de la hierba.t
11 En efecto, del mismo modo que, al calentar el sol con toda su fuerza, se seca la hierba y cae al suelo su flor, quedando en nada toda su hermosa apariencia, así fenecerán las empresas del rico.En medio de la prueba
12 Dichoso quien resiste la prueba pues, una vez acrisolado, recibirá como coronat la vida que el Señor ha prometido a quienes lo aman.t 13 Nadie acosado por la tentación tiene derecho a decir: “Es Dios quien me pone en trance de caer”. Dios está fuera del alcance del mal, y él tampoco instiga a nadie al mal.t 14 Cada uno es puesto a prueba por su propia pasión desordenada, que lo arrastra y lo seduce.t
15 Semejante pasión concibe y da a luz al pecado; y este, una vez cometido, origina la muerte.t
16 Hermanos míos queridos, no se engañen. 17 Todo beneficio y todo don perfecto bajan de lo alto, del creador de la luz, en quien no hay cambios ni períodos de sombra.t
18 Él, por su libre voluntad, nos engendró mediante la palabra de la verdad para que seamos como primeros frutos entre sus criaturas.tLa auténtica conducta religiosa
19 Sepant, hermanos míos queridos, que es preciso ser diligentes para escuchar, parcos al hablar y remisos en airarse,t 20 ya que el airado no es capaz de portarse con rectitudt ante Dios. 21 Por tanto, renunciando a todo vicio y al mal que nos cerca por doquier, acojan dócilmente la palabra que, plantada en ustedes, es capaz de salvarlos.t 22 Pero se trata de que pongan en práctica esa palabra y no simplemente que la oigan, engañándose a ustedes mismos.t 23 Quien oye la palabra, pero no la pone en práctica, se parece a quien contempla su propio rostro en el espejo: 24 se mira y, en cuanto se va, se olvida sin más del aspecto que tenía.
25 Dichoso, en cambio, quien se entrega de lleno a la meditación de la ley perfecta —la ley de la libertad— y no se contenta con oirla, para luego olvidarla, sino que la pone en práctica.t
26 Si alguno se hace ilusiones de ser religioso de verdad, pero no controla su lengua, se engaña a sí mismo y su religiosidad no vale para nada.t 27 Esta es la religiosidad auténtica e intachable a los ojos de Dios Padre: asistir a los débiles y desvalidos* en sus dificultades y mantenerse incontaminado del mundot.t
