2:1 My brothers and sisters, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.
2:2 For if a man comes into your ①assembly with a gold ring and is dressed in bright clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes also comes in,
▷ ①Or synagogue
2:3 and you ①pay special attention to the one who is wearing the bright clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,”
▷ ①Lit look at
2:4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil ①motives?
▷ ①Lit reasonings
2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters: did God not choose the poor ①of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?
▷ ①Lit to the
2:6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and ①personally drag you into ②court?
▷ ①Lit they themselves ②Lit courts
2:7 Do they not blaspheme the good name ①by which you have been called?
▷ ①Lit which has been called upon you
2:8 If, however, you are fulfilling the ①royal law according to the Scripture, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF,” you are doing well.
▷ ①Or law of our King
2:9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the Law as violators.
2:10 For whoever keeps the whole Law, yet stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all.
2:11 For He who said, “DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY,” also said, “DO NOT MURDER.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do murder, you have become a violator of the Law.
2:12 So speak, and so act, as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.
2:13 For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy ①triumphs over judgment.
▷ ①Lit boasts against
2:14 What use is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can ①that faith save him?
▷ ①Lit the
2:15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,
2:16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, ①be warmed and be filled,” yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?
▷ ①Or warm yourselves and fill yourselves
2:17 In the same way, faith also, if it has no works, is ①dead, being by itself.
▷ ①Or dead by its own standards
2:18 But someone ①may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
▷ ①Lit will
2:19 You believe that ①God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
▷ ①One early ms there is one God
2:20 But are you willing to acknowledge, you foolish person, that faith without works is useless?
2:21 Was our father Abraham not justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
2:22 You see that faith was working with his works, and ①as a result of the works, faith was ②perfected;
▷ ①Or by the deeds ②Or completed
2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called a friend of God.
2:24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
2:25 In the same way, was Rahab the prostitute not justified by works also when she received 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.