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2:1 My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with [an attitude of] personal favoritism. 2:2 For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, 2:3 and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool," 2:4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? 2:5 Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of 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. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? 2:7 Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? 2:8 If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law, according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well. 2:9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin [and] are 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," also said, "Do not commit murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 2:12 So speak and so act, as those who are to be judged by [the] law of liberty. 2:13 For judgment [will be] merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. 2:14 What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 2:15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 2:16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for [their] body, what use is that? 2:17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, [being] by itself. 2:18 But someone may [well] 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." 2:19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. 2:20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? 2:22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; 2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," and he was called the friend of God. 2:24 You see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone. 2:25 And in the same way was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works, when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 2:26 For just as the body without [the] spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.