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James 1:17

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

James 1:17, King James Version (KJV)

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor turning shadow.”

World English Bible (WEB)

Read James 1:17 in the NIV, ESV and 13 more Bibles, with study notes and the original Greek, in the Path & Light app.

James 1 (KJV)

  1. 1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
  2. 2My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
  3. 3Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
  4. 4But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
  5. 5If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
  6. 6But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
  7. 7For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
  8. 8A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
  9. 9Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
  10. 10But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
  11. 11For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
  12. 12Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
  13. 13Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
  14. 14But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
  15. 15Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
  16. 16Do not err, my beloved brethren.
  17. 17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
  18. 18Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
  19. 19Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
  20. 20For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
  21. 21Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
  22. 22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
  23. 23For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
  24. 24For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
  25. 25But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
  26. 26If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
  27. 27Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Related verses

Passages that readers often connect with James 1:17, in the King James Version.

  • John 3:27

    John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.

  • Matthew 7:11

    If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

  • Hebrews 13:8

    Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

  • John 8:12

    Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

  • Numbers 23:19

    God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

  • 1 John 1:5

    This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

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1769 standardized text (eBible.org eng-kjv). Public domain outside the United Kingdom. Text courtesy of the Crosswire Bible Society and eBible.org. World English Bible Protestant Edition (eBible engwebp, 2026-09-15 snapshot). Public domain. World English Bible is a trademark of eBible.org. Text unmodified; footnotes and formatting omitted. Related verses: OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0), from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.