James 2 - Amplified Bible(AMP)

The Sin of Partiality

1My fellow believers, do not practice your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of partiality.

2For if a man comes into your meeting place wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes also comes in,

3and you pay special attention to the one who wears the fine clothes, and say to him, “You sit here in this good seat,” and you tell the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,”

4have you not discriminated among yourselves, and become judges with wrong motives?

5Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters: has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

6But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress and exploit you, and personally drag you into the courts of law?

7Do they not blaspheme the precious name by which you are called?

8If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” you are doing well.

9But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the Law as offenders.

10For whoever keeps the whole Law but stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all of it.

11For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you have become guilty of transgressing the Law.

12Speak and act as people who are going to be judged by the law of liberty.

13For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; but mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith and Works

14What is the benefit, my fellow believers, if someone claims to have faith but has no works? Can that faith save him?

15If a brother or sister is without clothing and lacks food for each day,

16and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, warm and feed yourselves,” but he does not give them the necessities for the body, what good does that do?

17So too, faith, if it does not have works, is by itself dead.

18But someone may say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

19You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe, and shudder and bristle!

20But are you willing to recognize, you foolish person, that faith without works is useless?

21Was our father Abraham not justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?

22You see that faith was working together with his works, and as a result of the works, his faith was completed.

23And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and this was credited to him as righteousness and as conformity to His will,” and he was called the friend of God.

24You see that a man (believer) is justified by works and not by faith alone.

25In the same way, was Rahab the prostitute not justified by works too, when she received the spies as guests and protected them, and sent them away by a different route?

26For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.