James 2  Lexham English Bible

Partiality Forbidden

2 My brothers, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with partiality. ² For if someone^[a] enters into your assembly^[b] in fine clothing with a gold ring on his finger, and a poor person in filthy clothing also enters, 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^[c] by my footstool,” ⁴ have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 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? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor! Are not the rich exploiting you and they themselves dragging you into the courts? ⁷ Do they themselves not blaspheme the good name of the one to whom you belong^[d]?

⁸ However, if you carry out the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”^[e] you are doing well. ⁹ But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and thus^[f] are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point only has become guilty of all of it. ¹¹ For the one who said “Do not commit adultery”^[g] also said “Do not murder.”^[h] Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹² Thus speak and thus act as those who are going to be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³ For judgment is merciless to the one who has not practiced mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith and Works

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?^{[i] 15} If a brother or a sister is poorly clothed and lacking food for the day, ¹⁶ and one of you should say to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well^[j],” but does not give them what is necessary for the body, what is the benefit? ¹⁷ Thus also faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.”^[k] Show me your faith apart from your^[l] works, and I will show you my^[m] faith by my works. ¹⁹ You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe, and shudder! ²⁰ But do you want to know, O foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? ²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he^[n] offered up his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see that faith was working together with his works, and by the works the faith was perfected. ²³ And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness,”^[o] and he was called God’s friend. ²⁴ You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵ And likewise was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she^[p] welcomed the messengers and sent them out by a different route? ²⁶ For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.