Кафолическое Послание св. Апостола Иакова

1) Jacob, servant of our God and Lord Jesus Christ, greetings to the twelve tribes that are scattered abroad. 2) [How] appreciate all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, 3) knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4) Now patience has its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and whole, lacking nothing. 5) If anyone needs your wisdom, let him ask God, who gives freely to everyone and does not reproach, and it will be given to him. 6) But let him ask in faith, without hesitating at all, for whoever hesitates is like a wave of the sea, lifted and carried by the wind. 7) So, let not this man think that he will receive anything from the Lord. 8) A man with a split soul is not firm in all his ways. 9) Let the humble brother glory in his highness, 10) let the rich brother boast in his lowliness, for like a flower on the grass he will pass away. 11) For the sun rises with heat, and dries the hay, and its color falls, and the beauty of its appearance departs; so the rich man fades in his ways. 12) Blessed is the man who endures temptation, because when he is tested, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him. 13) When no one is tempted, let him say that he is being tempted by God; for God is not the tempter of the wicked and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14) Everyone is tempted, being drawn away and deceived by his own lust. 15) Then lust, when it conceives, gives birth to sin, and sin, when completed, gives birth to death. 16) Therefore, do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness or shadow of turning. 18) For He voluntarily begat us by the word of truth, that we might be some firstfruits of His creatures. 19) You know, my beloved brothers. Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. 20) For the anger of a husband does not create the righteousness of God. 21) Therefore, putting aside all uncleanness and excess of malice, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22) Be ye doers of the word, and not merely hearers, deceiving yourselves. 23) For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he will be like a man looking at the natural features of his face in a mirror: 24) for he looked at himself and walked away, and immediately forgot what he was like. 25) Whoever delves into the perfect law of freedom and remains in it, becoming not a forgetful listener, but a doer of the deed, he will be blessed in his action. 26) If anyone thinks that he is pious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, his piety is in vain. 27) Pure and undefiled piety before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their sorrows and to keep oneself undefiled from this age. 1) My brothers! Do not have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with partiality, who is worthy of glory. 2) For if a man with a gold ring, in a shining robe, enters into your assembly, and a poor man in poor clothes also enters, 3) and you look at the one dressed in the most beautiful clothes, and say to him: “It is good for you to sit here,” but they said to the poor man: “You stand there, or sit here, at the footstool of my feet,” - 4) then are you not over-judging yourself and becoming judges with wrong thoughts? 5) Listen, my beloved brothers: has not God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom that God has promised to those who love Him? 6) You didn’t honor the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you with force, and is it not they who drag you into court? 7) Do they not blaspheme the good name that is called upon you? 8) If you fulfill the royal law, according to Scripture: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18), then you do well; 9) if you act with partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the Law as criminals. 10) Anyone who keeps the entire Law, but disobeys [the Law] in one [thing], becomes guilty of everything. 11) For He who said, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” also said, “Thou shalt not kill.” After all, if you do not commit adultery, but kill, you become a transgressor of the law. 12) So speak and do so, as if you are to be judged according to the law of freedom. 13) For judgment is without mercy to him who has not shown mercy; mercy is exalted over judgment. 14) What good is it, my brothers, if someone says about himself that he has faith, but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15) If a brother and sister are naked and in need of daily food, 16) and one of you says to them: “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” then do not give them what they need for the body: what good is it? 17) Likewise, faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself. 18) But someone will say: “You have faith, but I have works: show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith without works.” 19) You believe that God is one: you do well; and the demons believe and tremble. 20) But do you want to know, O empty man, that faith without works is dead? 21) Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22) Do you see that faith contributed to his works, and by works faith was brought to perfection? 23) And the Scripture was fulfilled, saying: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God” (Gen. 15:6). 24) Do you see that a person is justified by works, and not by faith alone? 25) Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, having received the messengers and sent [them] another way? 26) For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. 1) Do not many become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will be subject to greater condemnation, 2) for in many ways we offend everyone. If anyone does not offend in a word, he is a perfect man; he can bridle the whole body with a bridle. 3) If we put a bridle in the horses’ mouths so that they obey us, [then] we turn their whole body in any direction. 4) So, ships, no matter how large they are and no matter how strong the winds blow, are directed with a small rudder in different directions, wherever the pilot wants. 5) Likewise, the tongue is also a small member, but exalts a lot. Behold, what a fire ignites so much forest! 6) And the tongue is fire, the totality of untruth. The tongue is in such a position between our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the wheel of our birth, [being itself] set on fire by Gehenna. 7) For every nature of animals, and birds, and snakes, and others is tamed and tamed by human nature, 8) but none of the people can tame the tongue: [this] is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9) With it we bless God and the Father, and with it we curse men, who “in the likeness of God” (Gen. 1:27) were created. 10) From the same mouth comes blessing and curse [benedictio et maledictio]. It shouldn’t be like this, my brothers. 11) Does the spring produce sweet and bitter water from the same hole? 12) Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives and a grapevine produce figs? Likewise, a salty spring cannot produce sweet water. 13) Who is wise and learned among you? Let him show wise meekness in his deeds through good behavior. 14) But if you have bitter jealousy and pathos in your heart, do not boast, and do not be liars against the truth: 15) for this is not wisdom that comes down from above, but earthly, spiritual, demonic. 16) For where there is jealousy and pathos, there is inconstancy and every evil deed. 17) The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, modest, accommodating, agreeable to good, full of mercy and good fruits, non-judgmental and unhypocritical. 18) The fruit of righteousness in peace is sown for those who make peace. 1) Where do you get wars and disputes from? Is it not from here, from your lusts that war in your members? 2) You desire and do not have; you kill and envy - and cannot achieve; you argue and fight, and you do not have, because you do not ask. 3) You ask and do not receive, because you ask poorly in order to use it for your lusts. 4) Adulterers! Don’t you know that friendship with this world is hostile to God? Anyone who wants to be a friend of this age becomes an enemy of God. 5) Do you not think that the Scripture says in vain: “Does the Spirit who dwells in you lust unto jealousy?” 6) But He gives great grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Prov. 3:34 LXX). 7) So, submit to God; resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8) Draw closer to God, and He will draw closer to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9) Be sorrowful, and weep, and weep; Let your laughter turn into crying, and your joy into sorrow. 10) Humble yourself before the sight of the Lord, and He will exalt you. 11) Do not slander one another, brothers. Whoever speaks evil of a brother, or who judges his brother, speaks evil of the Law and judges the Law. If you judge the Law, you are not a doer of the Law, but a judge. 12) There is one Lawgiver and Judge, who can save and destroy. 13) Who are you who judge your neighbor? Now, what are you saying: “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and we will spend exactly a year there, and we will trade and make a profit”; 14) you who don’t know what will happen tomorrow. 15) For what is your life? Steam that appears for a short time, and then it is destroyed. Instead of telling you: “If the Lord wants,” and: “If we are alive, we will do this or that.” 16) Now you rejoice in your pride. Any such joy is bad. 17) Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, it is sin for him. 1) Now you rich people, act: cry, crying out about your disasters that are coming upon you. 2) Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. 3) Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be a testimony [against] you and will consume your flesh like fire. You have stored up your anger for the last days. 4) Behold, the wages of the workers who reaped your fields, which you wickedly withheld, cry out; and their cry reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5) You lived luxuriously on earth and filled your hearts with bliss on the day of slaughter. 6) You condemned and killed the Righteous; and He did not resist you. 7) Therefore, be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, patiently enduring [everything] until he receives the early and the late. 8) Therefore, be patient, and strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is drawing near. 9) Do not complain, brothers, against each other, so as not to be condemned. Behold, the Judge stands at the door. 10) Take as an example, brothers, the enduring of evil, labor and patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11) Behold, we bring joy to those who endured. You have heard about Job’s endurance and you have seen the end [from] the Lord, for the Lord is merciful and merciful. 12) First of all, my brothers, do not swear by heaven or earth or any other oath. Let your word be “yes, yes” and “no, no,” so that you do not fall under condemnation. 13) Are any of you sad? Let him pray. In a cheerful mood? Let him sing psalms. 14) Are any of you sick? Let him bring the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15) And the prayer of faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he is in sin, he will be forgiven. 16) Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be saved: for the earnest prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 17) Elijah was a man, like us, subject to passions, and he prayed with prayer that there would be no rain on the earth: and there was no rain for three years and six months. 18) And he prayed again: and the sky gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit. 19) My brothers, if one of you deviates from the truth and someone converts him, 20) [he] should know that whoever converts a sinner from the error of his life will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.