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2 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[fn] 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,”[fn] 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.[fn] 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![fn]
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[fn] 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,”[fn] and he was called the friend of God.[fn]
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.
2:7 Usually understood to be the name of Jesus.
2:8 Quoting Leviticus 19:18.
2:11 Quoting Exodus 20:13-14 or Deuteronomy 5:17-18.
2:13 The exact meaning of this verse is debated, but the fundamental point is to emphasize the merciful character of God.
2:21 Or “shown to be right.”
2:23 Quoting Genesis 15:6.
2:23 See Isaiah 41:8.