2:1 My brothers, do not be holding the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with respect-of-persons.
2:2 For if a gold-ringed man in shining clothing enters into your gathering, and a poor man in filthy clothing also enters,
2:3 and you look-upon the one wearing the shining clothing and say “You be sitting here honorably”, and you say to the poor man “You stand there, or be sitting under my footstool”,
2:4 did you not make-distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers— did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and inheritors of the kingdom which He promised to the ones loving Him?
2:6 But you dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and themselves drag you into courts?
2:7 Do not they blaspheme the good name having been called upon you?
2:8 If indeed you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture [in Lev 19:18], “You shall love your neighbor as yourself ”, you are doing well.
2:9 But if you are showing-respect-of-persons you are working a sin, being convicted by the Law as transgressors.
2:10 For whoever keeps the whole Law but stumbles in one thing has become guilty of all.
2:11 For the One having said “Do not commit-adultery” also said “Do not murder”. Now if you do not commit-adultery, but you murder, you have become a transgressor of the Law.
2:12 So speak and so do as ones going to be judged by the law of liberty.
2:13 For judgment will be merciless to the one not having done mercy. Mercy vaunts over judgment.
2:14 What is the profit, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? The faith is not able to save him, is it?
2:15 If brother or sister are naked and lacking daily food
2:16 and one of you says to them “Go in peace; be warmed and filled”, but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what is the profit?
2:17 In this manner also faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
2:18 But someone will say “You have faith, and I have works”. Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you the faith by my works.
2:19 You believe that God is one? You do well. Even the demons believe and shudder!
2:20 But do you want to know, O empty person, that faith without works is useless?
2:21 Abraham our father— was he not declared-righteous by works, having offered Isaac his son on the altar?
2:22 Do you see that faith was working-with his works, and the faith was perfected by the works?
2:23 And the Scripture was fulfilled, the one saying [in Gen 15:6] “And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness”. And he was called a friend of God.
2:24 Do you all see that a person is declared-righteous by works, and not by faith alone?
2:25 And likewise also Rahab the prostitute— was she not declared-righteous by works, having received the messengers and sent-them-out by a different way?
2:26 For just as the body without spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
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