James 2
1 My brothers, do not hold to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with favoritism toward certain people.
My friends, are you really trying to combine faith in Jesus Christ, our glorified Lord, with discrimination?
2 Suppose that someone enters your meeting wearing gold rings and fine clothes, and there also enters a poor man in dirty clothes.
Suppose a visitor should enter your synagogue, with gold rings and in grand clothes, and suppose a poor man should come in also, in shabby clothes,
3 If you look at the person wearing fine clothes and say, “You sit here in a good place,” but you say to the poor man, “You stand over there” or “Sit at my feet,”
and you show more respect to the visitor who is wearing grand clothes, and say – ‘There is a good seat for you here,’ but to the poor man – ‘You must stand; or sit down there by my footstool,’
4 are you not judging among yourselves? Have you not become judges with evil thoughts?
Haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves, and used evil standards of judgement?
5 Listen, my beloved brothers, did not God choose the poor of the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?
Listen, my dear friends. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the things of this world to be rich through their faith, and to possess the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor! Is it not the rich who oppress you? Are they not the ones who drag you to court?
But you – you insult the poor man! Isn’t it the rich who oppress you? Isn’t it they who drag you into law courts?
7 Do they not insult the good name by which you have been called?
Isn’t it they who malign that honourable name spoken over you at your baptism?
8 If, however, you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well.
If you keep the royal law which runs – “You must love your neighbour as you love yourself,” you are doing right;
9 But if you favor certain people, you are committing sin, and you are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.
but, if you discriminate, you commit a sin, and stand convicted by that same law of being offenders against it.
10 For whoever obeys the whole law, except that he stumbles in just a single way, has become guilty of breaking the whole law.
For a person who has laid the Law, as a whole, to heart, but has failed in one particular, is accountable for breaking all its provisions.
11 For the one who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery, but if you do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
He who said “You must not commit adultery” also said “You must not murder.” If, then, you commit murder but not adultery, you are still an offender against the Law.
12 So speak and act as those who will be judged by means of the law of freedom.
Therefore, speak and act as people who are to be judged by the “Law of freedom.”
13 For judgment comes without mercy to those who have shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
For there will be justice without mercy for the person who has not acted mercifully. Mercy triumphs over Justice.
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
My friends, what good is it if someone claims that they have faith, but they do not prove it by actions? Can such faith save them?
15 Suppose that a brother or sister is badly clothed and lacks food for the day.
Suppose some brother or sister should be in need of clothes and of daily bread,
16 Suppose that one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm and be filled.” If you do not give them the things necessary for the body, what good is that?
and one of you says to them – ‘Go, and peace be with you; keep warm and eat well!’ and yet you do not actually give them the necessities of life, what good would it be to them?
17 In the same way faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
In just the same way faith, if not followed by actions, is, by itself, a lifeless thing.
18 Yet someone may say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
Someone, indeed, may say – ‘You are a man of faith, and I am a man of action.’ ‘Then show me your faith,’ I reply, ‘apart from any actions, and I will show you my faith by my actions.’
19 You believe that there is one God; you do well. But even the demons believe that, and they tremble.
It is a part of your faith, is it not, that there is one God? Good; yet even the demons have that faith, and tremble at the thought.
20 Do you want to know, foolish man, that faith without works is useless?
Now do you really want to understand, fool, how it is that faith without actions leads to nothing?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
Look at our ancestor, Abraham. Was he not justified by his actions after he had offered his son, Isaac, on the altar?
22 You see that faith worked with his works, and that by works his faith was fully developed.
You see how, in his case, faith and actions went together; that his faith was perfected as the result of his actions;
23 The scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God.
and that in this way the words of scripture came true – ‘Abraham believed God, and that was regarded by God as righteousness,’ and ‘He was called the friend of God.’
24 You see that it is by works that a man is justified, and not only by faith.
You see, then, that a person is justified by actions, and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way also, was not Rahab the prostitute justified by works, when she welcomed the messengers and sent them away by another road?
Wasn’t it the same with the prostitute, Rahab? Was she not justified by her actions, after she had welcomed the messengers and helped them escape by another road?
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.
Just as a body is dead without a spirit, so faith is dead without actions.
