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The Letter of James 2

2 My fellow believers, do not honor some people more than others and at the same time trust in our great Lord Jesus the Messiah. 2 For example, suppose that a person who wears gold rings and fine clothes joins you for worship. And suppose that a poor person who wears shabby clothes joins you as well. 3 And suppose that you show special attention to the one dressed in fine clothes. You tell him, “Please sit here in this nice seat!” But you tell the poor one to go to a less honorable place, saying, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit on the floor!” 4 This would show that you thought rich people were better than poor people. It would show that you were making your judgments about how to treat people based on evil thinking. 5 Listen to me, my fellow believers whom I love. God has chosen poor people who seem to own nothing of value to trust in him very much. He will give them great things when he reigns everywhere. This is what he has promised to do for everyone who loves him. 6 But you have treated poor people disrespectfully! Think about it! It is the rich people, not the poor people, who are causing you to suffer! It is the rich people who forcibly take you to court to accuse you in front of judges! 7 And they are the ones who insult you because you are Christians! 8 So you should not treat rich people better than poor people. Instead, you should obey the commandment that Jesus said was so important. It is from the law of Moses: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” If you show love to everyone equally, you will be doing what is right. 9 But if you honor some people more than others, you are doing wrong. And because you are not doing what God has commanded, God will say that you have broken his law.

10 God will say this because if you break one of God’s laws, even if you obey all the other ones, it is just as if you had broken all the laws. 11 For example, God said, “Do not commit adultery,” but he also said, “Do not murder anyone.” So if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder someone, then you have become a person who disobeys God’s laws.

12 Always speak and act towards others knowing that God will judge you based on the commandment he gave us to love others. When we follow that commandment, we obey God freely. 13 You should speak and act in this way because when God judges us, he will not act mercifully toward those who have not acted mercifully toward others. But if we are merciful to others, then we can expect that God will be merciful to us when he judges us.

14 My fellow believers, some people say, “I believe in the Lord Jesus the Messiah,” but they do not do loving things. What they say will do them no good. If they only believe with words, God will certainly not save them. 15 To illustrate, suppose that a fellow believer, whether a man or a woman, is continually lacking clothes and food for each day. 16 And suppose one of you says to them, “Do not worry, get warm, and have the food you need.” But suppose that you then do not give them any clothing or food. Then that will be no help to them! 17 Similarly, if you just say that you believe in Jesus but you do not do anything that demonstrates that, you do not really believe in Jesus.

18 But someone might say to you that you have faith, while I have works. He might claim that a person can express his religion through either faith or works and that he does not need to have both. But I would say in response that you cannot show me your faith without works. I, on the other hand, can show you my faith by my works. 19 Let me illustrate how believing in God without doing what God wants you to do cannot save you. You believe that there is only one true God. You are right to believe that. But the demons also believe that, and they shake with fear because they also know that the one true God is going to punish them. 20 Also, you foolish person, I will give you proof that if someone says he believes in Jesus but he does not do anything that demonstrates that, then what he says does not help him in any way. 21 Here is the proof. Abraham, from whom we are descended, showed that he was willing to offer his son Isaac to God as a sacrifice if God wanted him to do that. God considered Abraham to be a righteous person because he showed that he would obey him and that proved that he genuinely trusted God. 22 In this way, Abraham obeyed God because he trusted him. When he obeyed him, that helped him trust God completely. 23 That was how the scripture came true that says, “Because Abraham truly trusted in God, God viewed him as someone who did what was right.” Other scriptures say that Abraham was God’s friend. 24 From the example of Abraham, you should recognize that God considers people to be righteous because of what they do, not simply because they trust in him. 25 Just as he did for Abraham, God also considered Rahab to be righteous because of what she did. She had been a prostitute, but she took care of the messengers Joshua sent to spy out the land. She then helped them to escape by sending them back on a safer road.

26 All of this illustrates an important truth. Just as a person’s body is not alive if he is no longer breathing, in the same way, a person does not really trust in God if he does not express that trust through what he does.

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