Open English Translation YAC (JAM) Chapter 2

2 My dear brothers and sisters, as you live out your faith in our honoured master Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) the messiah, don’t show favouritism to others. 2 For example, if a man in nicely cut clothes and wearing an expensive gold ring came into to your meeting as well as a poor man in filthy clothes 3 and you told the well-dressed one, ‘You sit here in this good chair,’ while telling the poor man, ‘You stand over here,’ or ‘You sit here on the mat,’ 4 wouldn’t that discrimination show that you have judged them with evil motives. 5 Listen my dear brothers and sisters, didn’t God chose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and participants in the kingdom which he promises to those who love him? 6 But you dishonour the poor, even though it’s the wealthier people who oppress you and bring court cases against you. 7 And aren’t they the ones who slander the very God that you pray to?

8 However if you are obeying the golden law, then when you love your neighbour as yourself,[ref] you’ll be doing well according to the scriptures. 9 But if you’re showing favouritism, then you’re all sinning by breaking the law. 10 Because anyone who tries to keep the law but slips up in one area, they’re still guilty of breaking the law. 11 The same God who said, ‘Don’t commit adultery,’[ref] also said, ‘Don’t murder,’[ref] so if you’re not committing adultery but you murder someone, then you’ve broken the law. 12 So speak and live your life knowing that you’re going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgement will be dispensed without mercy to those who haven’t been putting mercy into practice. Yes, mercy wins out over judgement.

14 My fellow believers, what would I gain if I said that someone had faith but it didn’t alter how they live their life? Faith like that wouldn’t be able to save them. 15 If a fellow believer is lacking clothes or food, 16 and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace and be warm and satisfied,’ but don’t help with their physical needs, what use would that be? 17 In other words, faith without the corresponding lifestyle is just dead.

18 No doubt someone will say, ‘Well you have the faith and I do the good deeds.’ So show me your faith without good deeds and I’ll demonstrate my faith by my good deeds. 19 You believe that there’s one God and you’re right, but even the demons believe that and shudder. 20 But the vain person still wants to know if faith without good deeds is wasted? 21 Wasn’t our ancestor Avraham considered right with God due to his actions when he offered up his son Yitshak (Isaac) on the altar?[ref] 22 So his faith was working together with his actions, and it was by his actions that his faith was perfected. 23 This fulfilled the scripture that says, ‘Avraham believed in God and so he was consider to be right with God,[ref] and was called a friend of God.’[ref] 24 So you can see that a person is considered right with God due to his actions, and not just by their ‘faith’. 25 Similarly the prostitute Rahav was made right by her actions when she welcomed the Hebrew messengers and then helped them get away by a different route.[ref] 26 Just like a body is dead once the spirit has departed, so too faith is dead if it’s not demonstrated by good deeds.