2:1 | My brothers and sisters,* do not show prejudice* if you possess faith* in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.* |
2:2 | For if someone* comes into your assembly* wearing a gold ring and fine clothing, and a poor person enters in filthy clothes, |
2:3 | do you pay attention to the one who is finely dressed and say,* “You sit here in a good place,”* and to the poor person, “You stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor”?* |
2:4 | If so, have you not made distinctions* among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?* |
2:5 | Listen, my dear brothers and sisters!* Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? |
2:6 | But you have dishonored the poor!* Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts? |
2:7 | Do they not blaspheme the good name of the one you belong to?* |
2:8 | But if you fulfill the royal law as expressed in this scripture,* “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”* you are doing well. |
2:9 | But if you show prejudice, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as violators.* |
2:10 | For the one who obeys the whole law but fails* in one point has become guilty of all of it.* |
2:11 | For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,”* also said, “Do not murder.”* Now if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a violator of the law. |
2:12 | Speak and act as those who will be judged by a law that gives freedom.* |
2:13 | For judgment is merciless for the one who has shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over* judgment. |
2:14 | What good is it, my brothers and sisters,* if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can this kind of faith* save him?* |
2:15 | If a brother or sister* is poorly clothed and lacks daily food, |
2:16 | and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,” but you do not give them what the body needs,* what good is it? |
2:17 | So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead being by itself. |
2:18 | But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.”* Show me your faith without works and I will show you faith by* my works. |
2:19 | You believe that God is one; well and good.* Even the demons believe that – and tremble with fear.* |
2:20 | But would you like evidence,* you empty fellow,* that faith without works is useless?* |
2:21 | Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? |
2:22 | You see that his faith was working together with his works and his faith was perfected by works. |
2:23 | And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Now Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness,”* and he was called God’s friend.* |
2:24 | You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. |
2:25 | And similarly, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another way? |
2:26 | For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. |