2:1 My brothers and sisters, 3 do not show prejudice 4 if you possess faith 5 in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. 6 2:2 For if someone 7 comes into your assembly 8 wearing a gold ring and fine clothing, and a poor person enters in filthy clothes, 2:3 do you pay attention to the one who is finely dressed and say, 9 “You sit here in a good place,” 10 and to the poor person, “You stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor”? 11 2:4 If so, have you not made distinctions 12 among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? 13 2:5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! 14 Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor! 15 Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts? 2:7 Do they not blaspheme the good name of the one you belong to? 16 2:8 But if you fulfill the royal law as expressed in this scripture, 17 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” 18 you are doing well. 2:9 But if you show prejudice, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as violators. 19 2:10 For the one who obeys the whole law but fails 20 in one point has become guilty of all of it. 21 2:11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” 22 also said, “Do not murder.” 23 Now if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a violator of the law. 2:12 Speak and act as those who will be judged by a law that gives freedom. 24 2:13 For judgment is merciless for the one who has shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over 25 judgment.
2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, 26 if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can this kind of faith 27 save him? 28 2:15 If a brother or sister 29 is poorly clothed and lacks daily food, 2:16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,” but you do not give them what the body needs, 30 what good is it? 2:17 So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead being by itself. 2:18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” 31 Show me your faith without works and I will show you faith by 32 my works. 2:19 You believe that God is one; well and good. 33 Even the demons believe that – and tremble with fear. 34
2:20 But would you like evidence, 35 you empty fellow, 36 that faith without works is useless? 37 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 2:22 You see that his faith was working together with his works and his faith was perfected by works. 2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Now Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness,” 38 and he was called God’s friend. 39 2:24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 2:25 And similarly, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed 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.
3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, 40 because you know that we will be judged more strictly. 41 3:2 For we all stumble 42 in many ways. If someone does not stumble 43 in what he says, 44 he is a perfect individual, 45 able to control the entire body as well. 3:3 And if we put bits into the mouths of horses to get them to obey us, then we guide their entire bodies. 46 3:4 Look at ships too: Though they are so large and driven by harsh winds, they are steered by a tiny rudder wherever the pilot’s inclination directs. 3:5 So too the tongue is a small part of the body, 47 yet it has great pretensions. 48 Think 49 how small a flame sets a huge forest ablaze. 3:6 And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents 50 the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It 51 pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell. 52
3:7 For every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature 53 is subdued and has been subdued by humankind. 54 3:8 But no human being can subdue the tongue; it is a restless 55 evil, full of deadly poison. 3:9 With it we bless the Lord 56 and Father, and with it we curse people 57 made in God’s image. 3:10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. These things should not be so, my brothers and sisters. 58 3:11 A spring does not pour out fresh water and bitter water from the same opening, does it? 3:12 Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, 59 or a vine produce figs? Neither can a salt water spring produce fresh water.
4:11 Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. 60 He who speaks against a fellow believer 61 or judges a fellow believer speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but its judge. 62 4:12 But there is only one who is lawgiver and judge – the one who is able to save and destroy. On the other hand, who are you to judge your neighbor? 63
5:13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praises. 5:14 Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint 65 him with oil in the name of the Lord. 5:15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up – and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 66 5:16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. 67 5:17 Elijah was a human being 68 like us, and he prayed earnestly 69 that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months! 5:18 Then 70 he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land sprouted with a harvest.
5:19 My brothers and sisters, 71 if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, 5:20 he should know that the one who turns a sinner back from his wandering path 72 will save that person’s 73 soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.