| 章 |
| 2:1 |
My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with [an attitude of] personal favoritism.
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| 2:2 |
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,
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| 2:3 |
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,"
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| 2:4 |
have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?
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| 2:5 |
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?
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| 2:6 |
But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?
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| 2:7 |
Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?
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| 2:8 |
If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law, according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well.
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| 2:9 |
But if you show partiality, you are committing sin [and] are convicted by the law as transgressors.
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| 2:10 |
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one [point], he has become guilty of all.
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| 2:11 |
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.
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| 2:12 |
So speak and so act, as those who are to be judged by [the] law of liberty.
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| 2:13 |
For judgment [will be] merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
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| 2:14 |
What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
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| 2:15 |
If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,
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| 2:16 |
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?
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| 2:17 |
Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, [being] by itself.
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| 2:18 |
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."
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| 2:19 |
You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
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| 2:20 |
But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
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| 2:21 |
Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
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| 2:22 |
You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
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| 2:23 |
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.
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| 2:24 |
You see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone.
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| 2:25 |
And 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?
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| 2:26 |
For just as the body without [the] spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
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