Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
James 2
Do Not Show Partiality
My brothers and sisters, as you hold faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, do not show partiality. Suppose a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your gathering, and a poor man in dirty clothing also comes in. If you pay special attention to the one wearing fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” but say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit here at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has God not chosen those who are poor in the world's eyes to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom he promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
The Royal Law
If you truly fulfill the royal law according to 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. Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at one point has become accountable for all of it. For the one who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and act as people who are going to be judged by the law of freedom. For judgment will be without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Faith Without Works Is Dead
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says they have faith but do not have works? Can that kind of faith save them? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and lacks daily food, and one of you says, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat well,” but you do not give them what the body needs, what good is that? In the same way, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. Do you want to know, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
Was not Abraham our father set right by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was working together with his works, and through the works faith was brought to completion. And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham trusted God, and it was counted to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is set right by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab the prostitute also set right by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.