James 2
¹ My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with partiality.
² For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue,1 and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in,
³ and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing and say, “Sit here in a good place;” and you tell the poor man, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my footstool”
⁴ haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?
⁶ But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you and personally drag you before the courts?
⁷ Don’t they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?
⁸ However, if you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”2 you do well.
⁹ But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.
¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
¹¹ For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,”3 also said, “Do not commit murder.”4 Now if you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
¹² So speak and so do as men who are to be judged by the law of freedom.
¹³ For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him?
¹⁵ And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food,
¹⁶ and one of you tells them, “Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;” yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it?
¹⁷ Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.
¹⁸ Yes, a man will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
¹⁹ You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe—and shudder.
²⁰ But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead?
²¹ Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
²² You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected.
²³ So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness,”5 and he was called the friend of God.
²⁴ You see then that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.
²⁵ In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
²⁶ For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.