LEB - James - 2

2:1  My brothers, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with partiality.

2:2  For if someone enters into your assembly in fine clothing with a gold ring on his finger, and a poor person in filthy clothing also enters,

2:3  and you look favorably on the one wearing the fine clothing and you say, “Be seated here in a good place,” and to the poor person you say, “You stand or be seated there by my footstool,”

2:4  have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

2:5  Listen, my dear brothers! Did not God choose the poor of the world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?

2:6  But you have dishonored the poor! Are not the rich exploiting you and they themselves dragging you into the courts?

2:7  Do they themselves not blaspheme the good name ⌞of the one to whom you belong⌟?

2:8  However, if you carry out the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.

2:9  But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and thus are convicted by the law as transgressors.

2:10  For whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point only has become guilty of all of it.

2:11  For the one who said “Do not commit adultery” also said “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

2:12  Thus speak and thus act as those who are going to be judged by the law of liberty.

2:13  For judgment is merciless to the one who has not practiced mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

2:14  What is the benefit, my brothers, if someone says that he has faith but does not have works? That faith is not able to save him, is it?

2:15  If a brother or a sister is poorly clothed and lacking food for the day,

2:16  and one of you should say to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and ⌞eat well⌟,” but does not give them what is necessary for the body, what is the benefit?

2:17  Thus also faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.

2:18  But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

2:19  You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe, and shudder!

2:20  But do you want to know, O foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

2:21  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

2:22  You see that faith was working together with his works, and by the works the faith was perfected.

2:23  And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was credited 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 likewise was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by a different route?

2:26  For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.