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The Letter from Jacob, Chapter 2
{2:1} My brothers, don't hold the faith of our Lord Yeshua the
Messiah of glory with partiality. {2:2} For if a man with a gold ring,
in fine clothing, comes into your [1>]synagogue[<1], and a poor man in
filthy clothing also comes in; {2:3} and you pay special attention to
him who wears the fine clothing, and say, "Sit here in a good place";
and you tell the poor man, "Stand there," or "Sit by my footstool";
{2:4} haven't you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges
with evil thoughts? {2:5} Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn't God
choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs
of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him? {2:6} But you
have dishonored the poor man. Don't the rich oppress you, and
personally drag you before the courts? {2:7} Don't they blaspheme the
honorable name by which you are called? {2:8} However, if you fulfill
the royal law, according to the Scripture, "You shall love your
neighbor as yourself,"[2] you do well. {2:9} But if you show
partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as
transgressors. {2:10} For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet
stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. {2:11} For he who
said, "Do not commit adultery,"[3] also said, "Do not commit
murder."[4] Now if you do not commit adultery, but murder, you have
become a transgressor of the law. {2:12} So speak, and so do, as men
who are to be judged by a law of freedom. {2:13} For judgment is
without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over
judgment.
{2:14} What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but
has no works? Can faith save him? {2:15} And if a brother or sister is
naked and in lack of daily food, {2:16} and one of you tells them, "Go
in peace, be warmed and filled"; and yet you didn't give them the
things the body needs, what good is it? {2:17} Even so faith, if it
has no works, is dead in itself. {2:18} Yes, a man will say, "You have
faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without works, and I by
my works will show you my faith.
{2:19} You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also
believe, and shudder. {2:20} But do you want to know, vain man, that
faith apart from works is dead? {2:21} Wasn't Abraham our father
justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
{2:22} You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith
was perfected; {2:23} and the Scripture was fulfilled which says,
"Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as
righteousness";[5] and he was called the friend of God. {2:24} You see
then that by works, a man is justified, and not only by faith. {2:25}
In the same way, wasn't Rahab the prostitute also justified by works,
in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?
{2:26} For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith
apart from works is dead.
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Footnotes:
[1] {2:2} or, meeting
[2] {2:8} Leviticus 19:18
[3] {2:11} Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18
[4] {2:11} Exodus 10:13; Deuteronomy 5:17
[5] {2:23} Genesis 15:6
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