| James Chapter 2 | ||
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| My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with {an attitude of} personal favoritism. | |
| For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, | |
| and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine 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," | |
| have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? | |
| Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world {to be} rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? | |
| But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? | |
| Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? | |
| If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF," you are doing well. | |
| But if you show partiality, you are committing sin {and} are convicted by the law as transgressors. | |
| For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one {point,} he has become guilty of all. | |
| For He who said, "DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY," also said, "DO NOT COMMIT MURDER." Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. | |
| So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by {the} law of liberty. | |
| For judgment {will be} merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. | |
| What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? | |
| If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, | |
| and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for {their} body, what use is that? | |
| Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, {being} by itself. | |
| But someone may {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." | |
| You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. | |
| But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? | |
| Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? | |
| You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; | |
| and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS," and he was called the friend of God. | |
| You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. | |
| In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? | |
| For just as the body without {the} spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. |
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