A LETTER OF JACOB

Jacob, a slave of God and of Lord Anointed Jesus

To those twelve tribes that are in the dispersion.
1:1

Hello. Regard it as all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the proof of your trust works out patience. Now let patience complete its work, so that you may be complete and whole, lacking nothing. But if any one of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all and does not say foul things, and it will be given to him.

But he should ask in trust--indeed, not hesitating. For the one who hesitates is like an ocean wave: blown and tossed about. For that person should not think that he will receive something from the Lord. He is a man who has a double life, unstable in all of his ways.

Now let the humble brother boast in his height; but let the wealthy one boast in his humility, because he will pass away like the flower of a plant. (For the sun rose with its heat and withered the plant, and its flower fell off, and the beauty of its face was destroyed.) In this way also, the wealthy person in his goings-on will fade away.

Blessed is the man who is continuing under trial, because since he has become approved, he will get the crown of life which the Lord promised to those who love him. No one who is undergoing trial should say that, "I am being tried by God," for God is not tested by bad things, and he puts no one to the test. But each one is tested by his own strong desire--lured out and trapped. Then when the strong desire has conceived, it has sin as a child. Now when sin is completely grown, it brings about death.

Don't be led astray, my beloved brothers. Each good present and each complete gift is from above--coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is not one change or shade of alteration. Since he wanted it so, he made us children by a message of truth, in order for us to be a certain first fruit of his creatures. And so, my beloved brothers, now let each person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to be enraged. For a man's rage does not work out God's justice.

So, put away all filthiness and abundance of that which is bad, and embrace in meekness the implanted message--the one which is able to save your lives. But become doers of the message, and not only hearers who are making rationalizing statements to themselves. Because if someone is a hearer of the message and is not a doer, this one is like a man who perceives in a mirror the face that he was born with. For he perceived himself, and went away, and immediately forgot what kind of person he was. But the one who has stepped down close to a completed Torah--that of freedom--and who continues along (not becoming a hearer of forgetfulness, but a doer of work), this one will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone considers himself to be devout without restraining his tongue--deceiving his heart instead--this person's devotion is worthless. This is clean and undefiled devotion with God (that is, the Father): to oversee orphans and widows in their affliction; to keep one's self unspotted by the creation. My brothers, do not hold the trust in our Lord of Glory, Anointed Jesus, with personal bias. For if a man enters into your gathering wearing gold rings and dressed in a luxurious robe, but also a poor man enters in dirty clothing, and if you look at the one wearing the luxurious robe and say, "You sit here in honor," and to the poor man you say, "You stand over there," or, "Sit beneath my footstool," aren't you discriminating among yourselves and becoming judges because of evil reasonings?
2:5 Hear me, my beloved brothers: didn't God choose out the poor of creation, who are rich in trust and are heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor.

Aren't the wealthy the ones who exert power over you and drag you into courts of justice? Don't they speak evil of that nice name that was named on you? If indeed you are keeping a royal law (according to the writing,"You will love your neighbor as yourself,") you are doing nicely. But if you show personal bias, you are working sin and are convicted under the Torah as wanderers.

For whoever keeps the whole Torah but who fails at one thing has become guilty of them all. For the one who said "Do not commit adultery" said also, "Do not murder." Now if you don't commit adultery but you murder, you have become someone who has wandered away from the Torah.

Speak like this and act like this: as though you are about to be judged by a law of freedom. For judgment is merciless for the one who has not practiced mercy. Mercy brags of its superiority over judgment.

What is the profit, my children, if someone says they have trust, but they have no deeds? Is the trust able to save him? If a brother or sister should be naked and lacking the day's food, but if someone from among you says, "Go away peacefully. Be warmed and well fed," but if you don't give them what their bodies need, what is the profit?

And trust is this way. If it has no deeds, it is dead by itself. However, someone will say, "You have trust, and I have deeds." Show me your trust without deeds, and I will show you trust from my deeds. You trust, because there is one God. You are doing nicely. The spirit beings also trust and tremble. But do you want to know, worthless human, that the trust is dead without the deeds?

Wasn't our ancestor Abraham justified through deeds when he brought up Isaak his son to the altar? Do you see that the trust was working together with his deeds, and that the trust was made complete through the deeds? And the writing was fulfilled which said, "Abraham trusted God, and it was counted for him as justification," and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified through deeds and not trust alone.

Now wasn't Rahab the prostitute also justified through deeds in the same way when she received the messengers and sent them out by another road? For just as the body is dead without breath, in the same way also trust is dead without deeds.
3:1 Brothers, not many of you should become teachers, since you know that we will receive a greater judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, this is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also, since we put bits into horses' mouths so that we will persuade them, and we steer their whole bodies. Look: even the ships which are so large and are driven by violent winds are steered wherever the driver wants by a tiny rudder. In the same way, the tongue is also a small member, and it boasts greatly!

Look at how little fire kindles so much material! And the tongue is a fire, a universe of injustice! The tongue is placed among our members; it blots the whole body, and sets nature's wheel on fire, and is being set on fire by Gehenna.

For every species of wild animals and also birds, reptiles and also sea creatures, has been subdued and is being subdued by the human species. But the tongue no humans are able to subdue. It is an unstable bad thing full of fatal poison.

With it we give praises to the Lord (that is, the Father), and with it we curse those people who were made according to God's likeness. From the same mouth, praising and cursing come out. My brothers, these things shouldn't be!

No fountain issues sweet ((fresh)) and bitter water from the same opening. My brothers, a fig tree is not able to make olives, nor a vine to make figs. Neither can a salt spring make sweet water.

Is there anyone wise and established among you? Let him show his deeds of nice conduct in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and bigotry in your hearts, aren't you bragging and lying about the truth? This is not the wisdom that comes down from above. On the contrary, it is earthly, of this life, from spirit beings. For where jealousy and bigotry are there is instability and every foul practice. But the wisdom from above is indeed first pure, then peaceful, gentle, easily persuaded, full of mercy and of good fruits--without discrimination or hypocrisy.
4:1 Now the fruit of right is sown in peace by those who make peace. Where do wars and where do fights among you come from? Aren't they from this: from those pleasures of yours that are in combat in your members? You strongly desire, and you don't have. You murder and are jealous, and you are not able to obtain. You fight and you war. Through not asking, you do not have. You ask, and you don't receive because you are asking badly: so that you may waste it on your pleasures.

Adulteresses! Don't you know that the friendship with creation is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a friend of creation stands as God's enemy. Or do you think that the writing says it worthlessly? Does the spirit that came to dwell in us long to envy? But it gives greater favor! And so it says, "God arranges himself against the high minded ones, but he gives favor to the lowly."

Therefore, submit to God. But stand against the accuser, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you people with double lives. Be miserable and mourn and cry. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and joy into sadness. Lower yourself in the Lord's presence, and he will lift you up.

11 Do not speak harshly of one another, brothers. The one who speaks harshly of a brother or judges his brother is speaking harshly of the Torah and judging the Torah. But if you judge the Torah, then you are not a doer of the Torah but rather a judge. One is the giver of the Torah and judge--the one who is powerful enough to save and to destroy.

But who are you who judge your neighbor? Come now, those who are saying, "Today or tomorrow let's go into this city and stay there for a year, and trade, and profit financially." These are ones who don't understand tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a vapor which appears for a short time and disappears. You should say instead, "If the Lord wants it and if we live, then we might also do this or that." But now you are boasting with your displays of pride. All of this boasting is evil. Therefore, it is sin to the one who knows to do a nice thing and is not doing it.
5:1 Come now, you wealthy ones! Cry, cry loudly about these miseries of yours that are coming. Your wealth has crumbled, and your clothing has become moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be a testimony about you and will eat your bodies like fire. You have stored up treasures during these last days.

Look! The salary of those workers who reaped the fields for you--the salary that you withheld--calls out, and the shouts of the reapers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
You lived in luxury on the land, and you were self-indulgent. You nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter! You condemned, you murdered the Just One; isn't he standing against you?

7 Therefore, suffer long, brothers, until the time of the Lord's presence. Look, the gardener is looking out toward the honorable fruit of the land, suffering long over it until he receives early and later harvests. You suffer long also. Steady your hearts, because the time of the Lord's presence has neared.

Brothers, don't gripe against one another, so that you may not be judged. Look, the judge has been standing in front of the doors.

Brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord's name as an example of suffering bad things and of longsuffering. Look: we bless those who are patient. You have heard of Job's patience, and you saw the Lord's aim (that the Lord is richly compassionate and shows pity).
Now, before all things, my brothers, "do not swear. Neither by heaven... nor the earth..." nor any other oath. But "let it be to you that the yes is yes and the no is no," so that you may not fall under judgment.

13 Anyone among you who is suffering misfortune should pray. Anyone who is cheerful should play music. Anyone among you who is sick should call the elderly people of the assembly to him, and they should pray over him after anointing him with oil in the Lord's name. And the vow made in trust will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him, and if he did any sins they will be forgiven him.

So admit your sins to one another, and make vows on one another's behalf, so that you may be healed. In operation, a just person's supplication succeeds greatly. Elijah was a human being, suffering in similar ways to us, and he prayed a prayer for it not to rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And again he prayed, and the sky gave rain, and the land provided its fruit.

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and if someone turns him back, he should know that the one who has turned a sinner back out of his wandering way will save his soul from death and "will hide a multitude of sins."