1 19 Of that you may be certain, my friends. But each of you must be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to be angry. 1 20 For a man's anger cannot promote the justice of God. 1 21 Away then with all that is sordid, and the malice that hurries to excess, and quietly accept the message planted in your hearts, which can bring you salvation.
1 22 Only be sure that you act on the message and do not merely listen; for that would be to mislead yourselves. 1 23 A man who listens to the message but never acts upon it is like one who looks in a mirror at the face nature gave him. 1 24 He glances at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he looked like. 1 25 But the man who looks closely into the perfect law, the law that makes us free, and who lives in its company, does not forget what he hears, but acts upon it; and that is the man who by acting will find happiness.
1 26 A man may think he is religious, but if he has no control over his tongue, he is deceiving himself; that man's religion is futile. 1 27 The kind of religion which is without stain or fault in the sight of God our Father is this: to go to the help of orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself untarnished by the world.