2:1 My brothers, don't show favoritism in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, [the Lord] of glory.
2:2 For if there comes into your+ synagogue a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, and there comes in also a poor man in vile clothing;
2:3 and you+ have regard to him who wears the fine clothing, and say, You sit here in a good place; and you+ say to the poor man, You stand, or sit there under my footstool;
2:4 don't you+ then make distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers; did not God choose those who are poor as to the world [to be] rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him?
2:6 But you+ have dishonored the poor man. Don't the rich oppress you+, and themselves drag you+ into court?
2:7 Don't they blaspheme the honorable name by which you+ are called?
2:8 Nevertheless if you+ fulfill the royal law, according to the Scripture, You will love your fellow man as yourself, you+ do well:
2:9 but if you+ show favoritism, you+ commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.
2:10 For whoever will keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one [point], he has become guilty of all.
2:11 For he who said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if you do not commit adultery, but kill, you have become a transgressor of the law.
2:12 So speak+, and so do+, as men who are to be judged by a law of liberty.
2:13 For judgment [is] without mercy to him who has shown no mercy: mercy glories against judgment.
2:14 What does it profit, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but doesn't have works? Can that faith save him?
2:15 If a brother or sister is naked and may be in lack of daily food,
2:16 and one of you+ says to them, Go in peace, be+ warmed and filled; and yet you+ don't give them the things needful to the body; what does it profit?
2:17 Even so faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead in itself.
2:18 Yes, a man will say, You have faith, and I have works: show me your faith apart from [your] works, and I by my works will show you [my] faith.
2:19 You believe that there is [only] one God; you do well: the demons also believe, and shudder.
2:20 But do you want to know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren?
2:21 Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
2:22 You see that faith was working with his works, and by works was faith made perfect;
2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God.
2:24 You+ see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.
2:25 And in like manner wasn't also Rahab the prostitute justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?
2:26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.