Outline of James

James: The book of James the half-brother of Jesus – an outline

1. Consider temptations an opportunity to test your faith and increase your patience.
   1. Be patient, and if you need wisdom, ask for it and God will provide it liberally.
   2. When you pray, you must be solid in your faith or you won’t receive anything.
   3. A double-minded man, who wavers in his faith, is unstable in all his ways.
   4. Let a poor man rejoice that he is exhalted, and a rich man rejoice that he is made low;
   5. Just like a flower dries up and withereth away, so too a rich man fades away.
   6. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for he shall receive the crown of life,
   7. Which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
   8. Let no man say God tempted him, for God isn’t tempted and doesn’t tempt men,
   9. Rather, every man is tempted of his own lusts, which bring forth sin and death.
   10. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh from the Father.
   11. Be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath which worketh not righteousness.
   12. Lay apart all filthiness and naughtiness, and receive meekness that can save your soul.
   13. It is not enough to merely read the word of God, you must also be a doer of good.
2. Don’t be a respecter of persons regarding wealth or position, but be kind to all people.
   1. Whosever shall keep the whole law, but offend in one point, is guilty of all.
   2. What profit a man who says he has faith, but doesn’t have any good works at all?
   3. Thou believest there is one God, thou doest well: for devils also believe, and tremble.
   4. Abraham offered his son Isaac upon the altar, faith wrought his works.
   5. Rahab the harlot received the messengers, and sent them out another way.
   6. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
3. My brethren, don’t be a slave to multiple masters, knowing we receive the greater damnation.
   1. The tongue is a little member that can lead us into hellfire, like the rudder of a great ship.
   2. Every kind of beasts, birds, serpents, sea creatures can be tamed by man, and has been,
   3. But no man can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
   4. We use our tongues to bless God, and also to curse men made in the image of God.
   5. Can a fountain be both sweet and bitter? Can a fig tree bear olive berries, or a vine bear figs?
   6. If you want to be wise, show it with a good conversation and the wisdom of meekness.
   7. If you have bitter envying and strife in your heart, there is confusion and every evil work.
   8. Wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy, with mercy and good fruits; without partiality or hypocrisy.
   9. The fruit of righteousness is sown in the peace of them that make peace.
4. Where do wars and fighting between you come from? Isn’t it from the lusts that war inside you?
   1. You lust, and have not: you kill, but can’t obtain: you fight and war, yet have not.
   2. Ye ask but don’t receive because you ask amiss: that you may consume upon your lusts.
   3. Adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
   4. Whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
   5. The scripture says that the spirit in us lusteth to envy; but Jesus giveth more grace.
   6. God resisteth the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
   7. Submit to God and draw near to Him. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
   8. Wash you hands, purify your heart, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. He shall lift you up.
   9. Don’t speak evil of your brother, or judge your brother, to judge is not to follow the law.
   10. There is only one lawgiver, who is able to save or destroy: who are you to judge others?
   11. Don’t say what you will do in the future, because our lives are a vapour that soon vanishes.
   12. Instead of evil boasting say, “If the Lord will it,” we shall live and do this or that.
   13. If you know what it means to do good, but you don’t do it, then you are sinning.
5. Escape now rich men, you should weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you.
   1. Your riches are corrupted, garments are motheaten, gold and silver is cankered and rusted.
   2. You have heaped together treasure for the last days, stolen from the workers you employed.
   3. You live in pleasure on the earth, have been wanton; condemned the just who don’t resist you.
   4. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Like a farmer waiting for harvest.
   5. Consider the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord, as examples of suffering and patience.
   6. We count them happy who endure, like patient Job who waited for the Lord’s pity & tender mercy.
   7. Do not swear, neither by heaven nor earth nor any other: let your yes be “yes” and your no be “no”.
   8. If you are afflicted, pray. If you are merry, then sing psalms. If you are sick, call the church elders.
   9. Confess faults to one another, and pray for one another that ye may be healed.
   10. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, like Elias who prayed about rain.
   11. He who converts a sinner from the error of his ways saves a soul from death; and hides a multitude of sins.