James 2

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¹My friends, as trusting believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, you must not show favoritism.

²Imagine that a man comes into your synagogue wearing gold rings and fine clothes, and then a poor man comes in dressed in rags.

³If you pay special attention to the well-dressed man, and say, “Please sit here in a seat of honor,” while you say to the poor man, “Stand over there, or sit on the floor by my feet,”

⁴haven't you discriminated and judged with bad motives?

⁵Listen, my dear friends: Didn't God choose those who the world considers poor to be rich in their trust in him, and to inherit the kingdom he promised to those who love him?

⁶But you've treated the poor shamefully. Isn't it the rich who oppress you and drag you before the courts?

⁷Don't they insult the honorable name of the one who called you and to whom you belong?

⁸If you really observe the royal law of Scripture: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” then you do well.

⁹But if you show favoritism, you're sinning. The law convicts you as guilty of breaking it.

¹⁰Someone who observes everything in the law but fails in just one part is guilty of breaking it all.

¹¹God told you not to commit adultery, and he also told you not to kill. So if you don't commit adultery, but you do kill, you've become a law-breaker.

¹²You should speak and act as people who will be judged by the law of freedom.

¹³Anyone who doesn't show mercy will be judged without mercy. Yet mercy wins out over judgment!

¹⁴My friends, what's the good of someone saying they trust in God when they don't do what's good and right? Can such “trust” save them?

¹⁵If a brother or sister doesn't have clothes, or food for the day,

¹⁶and you say to them, “Blessings on you! Stay warm and have a good meal!” and you don't provide what they need to survive, what's the good of that?

¹⁷By itself even your trust-based faith in God is dead and worthless if you don't actually do what's good and right.

¹⁸Someone may argue, “You have your trust in God; I have my good deeds.” Well, show me your trust in God without good deeds, and I will show you my trust in God by my good deeds!

¹⁹You believe that God is one God? That's great—but demons believe in God too, and they're scared of him!

²⁰You foolish people! Don't you know that trust in God without doing what's right is worthless?

²¹Wasn't our father Abraham made right by what he did—by offering his son Isaac on the altar?

²²You notice that his trust in God worked together with what he did, and through what he did his trust in God was made complete.

²³In this way scripture was fulfilled: “Abraham trusted God, and this was considered as him doing right,” and he was called the friend of God.

²⁴You see that people are made right by what they do, and not just by trusting God.

²⁵In the same way, wasn't Rahab the prostitute made right by what she did when she looked after the messengers and then sent them away by a different road?

²⁶Just as the body is dead without the spirit, trust in God is dead if you don't do what's right.