James 1:16

THE MESSAGE

So, my very dear friends, don't get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.

King James Version (1611)
Doe not erre, my beloued brethren.

King James Version
Do not err, my beloved brethren.

English Standard Version
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

New American Standard Bible
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters.

New Century Version
My dear brothers and sisters, do not be fooled about this.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

Berean Standard Bible
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

Contemporary English Version
Don't be fooled, my dear friends.

Complete Jewish Bible
Don't delude yourselves, my dear brothers.

Darby Translation
Do not err, my beloved brethren.

Easy-to-Read Version
My dear brothers and sisters, don't be fooled about this.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Erre not, my deare brethren.

George Lamsa Translation
Do not err, my beloved brethren.

Good News Translation
Do not be deceived, my dear friends!

Lexham English Bible
Do not be deceived, my dear brothers.

Literal Translation
Do not go astray, my beloved brothers,

Amplified Bible
Do not be misled, my beloved brothers and sisters.

American Standard Version
Be not deceived, my beloved brethren.

Bible in Basic English
Do not be turned from the right way, dear brothers.

Hebrew Names Version
Don't be deceived, my beloved brothers.

International Standard Version
Do not beDon't be">[fn] deceived, my dear brothers.

Etheridge Translation
Do not err, my beloved brethren;

Murdock Translation
Do not err, my beloved brethren.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Do not erre my deare brethren.

English Revised Version
Be not deceived, my beloved brethren.

World English Bible
Don't be deceived, my beloved brothers.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,

Weymouth's New Testament
Do not be deceived, my dearly-loved brethren.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Therfor, my most dereworthe britheren, nyle ye erre.

Update Bible Version
Don't be deceived, my beloved brothers.

Webster's Bible Translation
Do not err, my beloved brethren.

New English Translation
Do not be led astray, my dear brothers and sisters.

New King James Version
Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

New Living Translation
So don't be misled, my dear brothers and sisters.

New Life Bible
My Christian brothers, do not be fooled about this.

New Revised Standard
Do not be deceived, my beloved.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Be not deceived, my brethren beloved: -

Douay-Rheims Bible
Do not err, therefore, my dearest brethren.

Revised Standard Version
Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Erre not my deare brethren.

Young's Literal Translation
Be not led astray, my brethren beloved;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Erre not my deare brethre.

Mace New Testament (1729)
Don't be deluded, my brethren;

Simplified Cowboy Version
Don't go chasin' them foolish notions, cowboys.

Contextual Overview

¹³Don't let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, "God is trying to trip me up." God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one's way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer. ¹⁶So, my very dear friends, don't get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Do: Matthew 22:29, Mark 12:24, Mark 12:27, Galatians 6:7, Colossians 2:4, Colossians 2:8, 2 Timothy 2:18

my: James 1:19, James 2:5, Philippians 2:12, Philippians 4:1, Hebrews 13:1

Reciprocal: Exodus 31:6 - wise hearted Exodus 35:34 - he hath 2 Chronicles 9:23 - God Ezra 1:5 - whose spirit Nehemiah 2:12 - my God Nehemiah 7:5 - put into mine Psalms 10:17 - thou wilt prepare Proverbs 16:1 - preparations Jeremiah 31:18 - turn Matthew 13:11 - Because Mark 4:11 - Unto you Luke 8:15 - in an Luke 15:17 - when John 6:65 - that no Acts 11:18 - granted Acts 16:14 - whose Acts 18:27 - believed Romans 3:12 - there is none Ephesians 2:8 - that Philippians 1:6 - begun Philippians 2:13 - God Colossians 2:12 - the faith 1 Thessalonians 1:5 - but 2 Thessalonians 2:10 - they received 2 Thessalonians 3:5 - the Lord

Cross-References

Genesis 1:9
God spoke: "Separate! Water-beneath-Heaven, gather into one place; Land, appear!" And there it was. God named the land Earth. He named the pooled water Ocean. God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:14
God spoke: "Lights! Come out! Shine in Heaven's sky! Separate Day from Night. Mark seasons and days and years, Lights in Heaven's sky to give light to Earth." And there it was.

Psalms 8:3
I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewelry, Moon and stars mounted in their settings. Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, Why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way?

Psalms 19:6
That's how God's Word vaults across the skies from sunrise to sunset, Melting ice, scorching deserts, warming hearts to faith.

Matthew 24:29
"Following those hard times, Sun will fade out, moon cloud over, Stars fall out of the sky, cosmic powers tremble.

Matthew 27:45
From noon to three, the whole earth was dark. Around midafternoon Jesus groaned out of the depths, crying loudly, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

Revelation 21:23
Everything New I saw Heaven and earth new-created. Gone the first Heaven, gone the first earth, gone the sea. I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband. I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God. He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone." The Enthroned continued, "Look! I'm making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate." Then he said, "It's happened. I'm A to Z. I'm the Beginning, I'm the Conclusion. From Water-of-Life Well I give freely to the thirsty. Conquerors inherit all this. I'll be God to them, they'll be sons and daughters to me. But for the rest—the feckless and faithless, degenerates and murderers, sex peddlers and sorcerers, idolaters and all liars—for them it's Lake Fire and Brimstone. Second death!" One of the Seven Angels who had carried the bowls filled with the seven final disasters spoke to me: "Come here. I'll show you the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb." He took me away in the Spirit to an enormous, high mountain and showed me Holy Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God, resplendent in the bright glory of God. The City shimmered like a precious gem, light-filled, pulsing light. She had a wall majestic and high with twelve gates. At each gate stood an Angel, and on the gates were inscribed the names of the Twelve Tribes of the sons of Israel: three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, three gates on the west. The wall was set on twelve foundations, the names of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb inscribed on them. The Angel speaking with me had a gold measuring stick to measure the City, its gates, and its wall. The City was laid out in a perfect square. He measured the City with the measuring stick: twelve thousand stadia, its length, width, and height all equal. Using the standard measure, the Angel measured the thickness of its wall: 144 cubits. The wall was jasper, the color of Glory, and the City was pure gold, translucent as glass. The foundations of the City walls were garnished with every precious gem imaginable: the first foundation jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate a single pearl. The main street of the City was pure gold, translucent as glass. But there was no sign of a Temple, for the Lord God—the Sovereign-Strong—and the Lamb are the Temple. The City doesn't need sun or moon for light. God's Glory is its light, the Lamb its lamp! The nations will walk in its light and earth's kings bring in their splendor. Its gates will never be shut by day, and there won't be any night. They'll bring the glory and honor of the nations into the City. Nothing dirty or defiled will get into the City, and no one who defiles or deceives. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life will get in.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Do not err, my beloved brethren. For to make God the author of sin, or to charge him with being concerned in temptation to sin, is a very great error, a fundamental one, which strikes at the nature and being of God, and at the perfection of his holiness: it is a denying of him, and is one of those damnable errors and heresies, which bring upon men swift destruction; and therefore to be guarded against, rejected, and abhorred by all that profess any regard unto him, his name and glory.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Do not err, my beloved brethren - This is said as if there were great danger of error in the point under consideration. The point on which he would guard them, seems to have been in respect to the opinion that God was the author of sin, and that the evils in the world are to be traced to him. There was great danger that they would embrace that opinion, for experience has shown that it is a danger into which men are always prone to fall. Some of the sources of this danger have been already alluded to. Notes, James 1:13. To meet the danger he says that, so far is it from being true that God is the source of evil, he is in fact the author of all that is good: every good gift, and every perfect gift James 1:17, is from him, James 1:18.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 16. Do not err — By supposing that God is the author of sin, or that he impels any man to commit it.