James 2:1-26

Moffatt(i) 1 My brothers, as you believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Glory, pay no servile regard to people. 2 Suppose there comes into your meeting a man who wears gold rings and handsome clothes, and also a poor man in dirty clothes; 3 if you attend to the wearer of the handsome clothes and say to him, "Sit here, this is a good place," and tell the poor man, "You can stand," or "Sit there at my feet," 4 are you not drawing distinctions in your own minds and proving that you judge people with partiality? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers; has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the realm which he has promised to those who love him? 6 Now you insult the poor. Is it not the rich who lord it over you and drag you to court? 7 Is it not they who scoff at the noble Name you bear? 8 If you really fulfil the royal law laid down by scripture, You must love your neighbour as yourself, well and good; 9 but if you pay servile regard to people, you commit a sin, and the Law convicts you of transgression. 10 For whoever obeys the whole of the Law and only makes a single slip, is guilty of everything. 11 He who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not kill. Now if you do not commit adultery but if you kill, you have transgressed the Law. 12 Speak, act, as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom; 13 for the judgment will be merciless to the man who has shown no mercy — whereas the merciful life will triumph in the face of judgment. 14 My brothers, what is the use of anyone declaring he has faith, if he has no deeds to show? Can his faith save him? 15 Suppose some brother or sister is ill-clad and short of daily food; 16 if any of you says to them, "Depart in peace! Get warm, get food," without supplying their bodily needs, what use is that? 17 So faith, unless it has deeds, is dead in itself. 18 Someone will object, 'And you claim to have faith!' Yes, and I claim to have deeds as well; you show me your faith without any deeds, and I will show you by my deeds what faith is! 19 You believe in one God? Well and good. So do the devils, and they shudder. 20 But will you understand, you senseless fellow, that faith without deeds is dead? 21 When our father Abraham offered his son Isaac on the altar, was he not justified by what he did? 22 In his case, you see, faith co-operated with deeds, faith was completed by deeds, 23 and the scripture was fulfilled: Abraham believed God, and this was counted to him as righteousness — he was called God's friend. 24 You observe it is by what he does that a man is justified, not simply by what he believes. 25 So too with Rahab the harlot. Was she not justified by what she did, when she entertained the scouts and got them away by a different road? 26 For as the body without the breath of life is dead, so faith is dead without deeds.