1 My friends, as trusting believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, you must not show favoritism. 2 Imagine that a man comes into your synagogue wearing gold rings and fine clothes, and then a poor man comes in dressed in rags. 3 If 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,” 4 haven't you discriminated and judged with bad motives? 5 Listen, 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? 6 But you've treated the poor shamefully. Isn't it the rich who oppress you and drag you before the courts? 7 Don't they insult the honorable name of the one who called you and to whom you belong? 8 If you really observe the royal law of Scripture: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” then you do well. 9 But if you show favoritism, you're sinning. The law convicts you as guilty of breaking it. 10 Someone who observes everything in the law but fails in just one part is guilty of breaking it all. 11 God 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. 12 You should speak and act as people who will be judged by the law of freedom. 13 Anyone who doesn't show mercy will be judged without mercy. Yet mercy wins out over judgment! 14 My 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? 15 If a brother or sister doesn't have clothes, or food for the day, 16 and 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? 17 By itself even your trust-based faith in God is dead and worthless if you don't actually do what's good and right. 18 Someone 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! 19 You believe that God is one God? That's great—but demons believe in God too, and they're scared of him! 20 You foolish people! Don't you know that trust in God without doing what's right is worthless? 21 Wasn't our father Abraham made right by what he did—by offering his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You notice that his trust in God worked together with what he did, and through what he did his trust in God was made complete. 23 In this way scripture was fulfilled: “Abraham trusted God, and this was considered as him doing right,” and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that people are made right by what they do, and not just by trusting God. 25 In 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? 26 Just as the body is dead without the spirit, trust in God is dead if you don't do what's right.
James 2 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (26)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Proverbs 24:23; James 2:9; Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 16:19; Deuteronomy 1:17
- 2 Esther 3:10; Luke 15:22; Matthew 11:8–9; Zechariah 3:3–4; Esther 8:2
- 3 2 Corinthians 8:9; James 2:6; Luke 7:44–46; Isaiah 65:5; Jude 16
- 4 John 7:24; Job 34:19; Matthew 7:1–5; Psalm 82:2; James 4:11
- 5 Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20; Revelation 2:9; 1 Corinthians 1:26–28; 2 Corinthians 8:9
- 6 Proverbs 17:5; Proverbs 14:31; 1 Corinthians 11:22; Psalm 14:6; James 5:4
- 7 Philippians 2:9–11; Psalm 111:9; Ephesians 3:15; 1 Timothy 1:13; Revelation 13:5–6
- 8 Leviticus 19:18; Galatians 5:14; Matthew 22:39; Romans 13:8–9; James 2:12
- 9 Leviticus 19:15; James 2:1–4; John 8:9; 1 John 3:4; Romans 3:20
- 10 Galatians 3:10; Matthew 5:18–19; Deuteronomy 27:26
- 11 Exodus 20:13–14; Matthew 5:21–28; Deuteronomy 5:17–18; Romans 13:9; Matthew 19:18
- 12 James 1:25; James 2:8; Philippians 4:8; 2 Peter 1:4–8; Colossians 3:17
- 13 Matthew 5:7; Matthew 6:15; Proverbs 21:13; Luke 6:37; Ephesians 2:4–7
- 14 Matthew 7:26–27; Matthew 7:21–23; James 1:22–25; Luke 6:49; Titus 1:16
- 15 Luke 3:11; Matthew 25:35–40; Isaiah 58:7; Job 31:16–21; Isaiah 58:10
- 16 Proverbs 3:27–28; 1 John 3:16–18; Matthew 25:42–45; Romans 12:9; 2 Corinthians 8:8
- 17 James 2:26; 2 Peter 1:5–9; James 2:19–20; James 2:14; 1 Corinthians 13:13
- 18 James 3:13; James 2:14; 1 Timothy 1:5; Galatians 5:6; Titus 2:11–14
- 19 Luke 4:34; Mark 1:24; Matthew 8:29; Acts 16:17; Deuteronomy 6:4
- 20 James 2:17; James 2:26; Proverbs 12:11; Romans 1:21; Psalm 94:8–11
- 21 Genesis 22:16–18; Genesis 22:9–12; John 8:39; Matthew 12:37; Romans 4:16
- 22 1 Thessalonians 1:3; Hebrews 11:17–19; Galatians 5:6; 1 John 2:5; James 2:18
- 23 Genesis 15:6; Isaiah 41:8; 2 Chronicles 20:7; Galatians 3:6; Romans 4:22–24
- 24 James 2:21–22; James 2:15–18
- 25 Hebrews 11:31; Joshua 6:22–25; Joshua 2:19–21; Joshua 2:15; Joshua 2:4
- 26 James 2:20; James 2:17; James 2:14; Ecclesiastes 12:7; Job 34:14–15
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… by these things, but that they were given as a sign to the people, this fact shows,-- that Abraham himself, without circumcision and without observance of Sabbaths, "believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God." Then, again, Lot, without circumcision, was brought out from Sodom, receiving salvation from God.
Forgive her, O Lord, forgive her, I beseech Thee; "enter not into judgment" with her. Let Thy mercy be exalted above Thy justice, because Thy words are true, and Thou hast promised mercy unto "the merciful;" which Thou gavest them to be who wilt "have mercy" on whom Thou wilt "have mercy," and wilt "have compassion" on whom Thou hast …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
He was justified not only by works, but also by faith: for though he did many things well, yet he was never called the friend of God, except when he believed.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
For faith apart from works is dead, and so likewise are works apart from faith.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 9 (1899)
… the whole city of God in its pilgrim state, for it cries to God by the mouth of all its members, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." And this prayer is efficacious not for those whose faith is "without works and dead," but for those whose faith "worketh by love." For as reason, though subjected to God, …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)