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2:1  My brothers, you believe in our Lord, the wonderful Jesus Christ. So you must not think one man is better than another.
2:2  A man comes in to your church meeting. He has a gold ring and wears fine clothes. A poor man also comes in. He wears old clothes.
2:3  You look at the man who wears fine clothes. And you say to him, `Sit here on this good chair.' But you say to the poor man, `Stand over there,' or you say, `Sit on the floor by my feet.'
2:4  If you do these things, you think some people are better than others. You are wrong when you judge people this way.
2:5  Listen, my dear brothers. God has chosen people who are poor in this world. They believe very much. They will have a place in the kingdom which he has promised to give to those who love him.
2:6  But you made the poor man ashamed. Is it not the rich people who trouble you? Are not they the ones who take you to court?
2:7  Are not they the ones who say wrong things about the good name you have?
2:8  The holy writings say, `Love your neighbour as you love yourself.' If you obey this law of your King you do well.
2:9  But if you think one man is better than another, that is wrong. The law says you are a bad person.
2:10  Anyone who obeys the law, but then breaks one of the laws, has broken all the laws.
2:11  God made the law, `Do not use sex wrongly.' God also made the law, `Do not kill'. If you do not have wrong sex, but you kill, you have broken the law.
2:12  There is a law that makes people free. It is the law of showing kindness. Always talk and live like men who will be judged by that law.
2:13  When God judges, he will not be kind to a person who has not been kind. It is better to be kind than it is to judge people.
2:14  My brothers, perhaps a man says, `I believe.' What good is that if he does not do anything? Can just believing save him?
2:15  Perhaps a brother or a sister needs clothes and has no food.
2:16  Perhaps one of you says to them, `God bless you. Be warm. Eat all you want.' But what good is that if you do not give them what they need for their bodies?
2:17  Believing is like that. If it does not do anything it is no good. Belief by itself is dead.
2:18  In that case someone may say, `You believe. And I do good things. Try to show me that you believe without doing any acts of kindness. I will show you that I believe by doing acts of kindness.'
2:19  You believe that there is one God. That is right. But even the bad spirits believe that. And they shake with fear.
2:20  You are foolish! Believing is no good if it does not do anything good. Do you want to know that for sure?
2:21  Look at Abraham. God called our father Abraham a good man. This was because he gave his son Isaac to God on the holy table for a sacrifice.
2:22  You can see he believed. His faith and the things he did worked together. His believing was made all right because he did something.
2:23  The words of the holy writings came true. They say, `Abraham believed God. And he was called a good man because of it.' In another place he was called `God's friend.'
2:24  You see, a man is a good man because of the things he does, and not just because he believes.
2:25  Rahab was a bad woman. But in the same way God called her a good woman because of something she did. She took the men into her house and then let them go out another way.
2:26  A body is dead if it does not breathe. In the same way, believing is dead if it does not do anything good.