James 2
2
Love All People
1My dear brothers and sisters, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, never think some people are more important than others. 2Suppose someone comes into your church meeting wearing nice clothes and a gold ring. At the same time a poor person comes in wearing old, dirty clothes. 3You show special attention to the one wearing nice clothes and say, “Please, sit here in this good seat.” But you say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or, “Sit on the floor by my feet.” 4What are you doing? You are making some people more important than others, and with evil thoughts you are deciding that one person is better.
5Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! God chose the poor in the world to be rich with faith and to receive the kingdom God promised to those who love him. 6But you show no respect to the poor. The rich are always trying to control your lives. They are the ones who take you to court. 7And they are the ones who speak against Jesus, who owns you.
8This royal law is found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” If you obey this law, you are doing right. 9But if you treat one person as being more important than another, you are sinning. You are guilty of breaking God’s law. 10A person who follows all of God’s law but fails to obey even one command is guilty of breaking all the commands in that law. 11The same God who said, “You must not be guilty of adultery,” also said, “You must not murder anyone.” So if you do not take part in adultery but you murder someone, you are guilty of breaking all of God’s law. 12In everything you say and do, remember that you will be judged by the law that makes people free. 13So you must show mercy to others, or God will not show mercy to you when he judges you. But the person who shows mercy can stand without fear at the judgment.
Faith and Good Works
14My brothers and sisters, if people say they have faith, but do nothing, their faith is worth nothing. Can faith like that save them? 15A brother or sister in Christ might need clothes or food. 16If you say to that person, “God be with you! I hope you stay warm and get plenty to eat,” but you do not give what that person needs, your words are worth nothing. 17In the same way, faith by itself—that does nothing—is dead.
18Someone might say, “You have faith, but I have deeds.” Show me your faith without doing anything, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19You believe there is one God. Good! But the demons believe that, too, and they tremble with fear.
20You foolish person! Must you be shown that faith that does nothing is worth nothing? 21Abraham, our ancestor, was made right with God by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar. 22So you see that Abraham’s faith and the things he did worked together. His faith was made perfect by what he did. 23This shows the full meaning of the Scripture that says: “Abraham believed God, and God accepted Abraham’s faith, and that faith made him right with God.” And Abraham was called God’s friend. 24So you see that people are made right with God by what they do, not by faith only.
25Another example is Rahab, a prostitute, who was made right with God by something she did. She welcomed the spies into her home and helped them escape by a different road.
26Just as a person’s body that does not have a spirit is dead, so faith that does nothing is dead!
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James 2: NCV
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Ya'akov 2
2
1My Achim b'Moshiach, you do not with your acts of maso panim (favoritism) hold to the#2:1 orthodox Jewish emunah of the glorious Adoneinu Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua.#2:1 Dt 1:17; Lv 19:15; Prov 24:23
2For if there enter into your Beit HaKnesset (House of Assembly, shul, synagogue, shtibel) a man with gold rings on his fingers in expensive bekeshe (kaftan) and shtreimel, and there enters also an underpriviledged nebach, a kabtzen (poor person) in shmattes (rags),
3and you pay special attention to the takif [influential man] wearing the bekeshe and shtreimel and say, “You sit here in the seat of kibbud” (respect, honor), and to the kabtzen (pauper) you say, “You stand there.” Or “You sit at my feet,”
4did you not among yourselves differentiate with prejudice and became shofetim (judges) with machshavot re'sha (evil thoughts)?
5Hinei! My beloved Achim b'Moshiach, did not Der Oybershter make the Aniyim of the Olam Hazeh in fact Bechirim of Hashem to be rich in emunah and also yoreshim of the Malchut Hashem, which Adoshem gave as a havtachah (promise) to those with Ahavas Hashem?#2:5 Job 34:19
6But you dishonored the ish evyon (poor man, pauper). Do not the oishirim (rich ones) oppress you and they drag you into the Batei Din (Bet Din courts)?
7Do they not commit Chillul Hashem gidduf (blasphemy) against the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiachʼs Shem Tov that has been named upon you?
8If indeed you are shomer regarding the Dat HaMalkhut (Royal Decree), as it is written in the Kitvei Hakodesh, V'AHAVTAH L'REI'ACHA KAMOCHA#2:8 Lv 19:18 (And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself) you do well.
9But if you show maso panim (favoritism), you are chote'im (sinners) committing averos (transgressions) against the Torah.#2:9 Dt 1:17
10For whoever is shomer over kol haTorah but stumbles in one mitzvah, such is condemned as ashem (guilty) of averoh (transgression) of kol mitzvot.
11For the One having said, LO TINAF (You shall not commit adultery) said also LO TIRTZACH (You shall not murder). Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a Poshei'a al mitzvot HaTorah (Transgressor of the Torah).#2:11 Ex 20:13,14; Dt 5:17,18
12So let your devarim (words) be and so let your ma'asim (deeds) be as those who are about to come under the judgment of the Torah HaCherut.#2:12 1:25
13For the Din (Judgment) will be without rachamim (mercy) to the one not having shown rachamim. Rachamim wins the nitzachon (victory) over HaDin.
14What is the revach (gain, profit), my Achim b'Moshiach, if anyone claims to have emunah but does not have ma'asim (deeds)? Surely not such “emunah” is able to bring him to Yeshu'at Eloheinu?
15If an Ach b'Moshiach or an Achot b'Moshiach is dressed in shmattes (tatters) and lacking “lechem chukeinu”#2:15 Mt 6:11 (our daily bread),
16and anyone of you says to them, “Go in shalom! Be warmed and fed!” but you do not give to them the physical necessities, what is the revach (profit)?
17So also Emunah, if alongside it there is not in its company Ma'asim, is by itself niftar (deceased, dead).
18But someone will say, “You have emunah and I have ma'asim.” You make known to me the Hisgalus haSod (the revelation of the mystery) of your emunah without your ma'asim, and I'll show you, Chaver, from my ma'asim, the Emunah.
19So you're impressed with yourselves that with your emunah you can recite the kri'at Shema, nu? O you do so well… why, even the shedim have your da'as and emunah! But they shudder!#2:19 Dt 6:4
20Are you willing to have da'as, O hollow man, that “Emunah”#2:20 of dead orthodoxy unharnessed to Ma'asim, stands idle?
21Avraham Avinu, was he not YITZDAK IM HASHEM (justified with G-d) by his ma'asim when he performed the akedah (binding) and offered up Yitzchak Bno (Isaac his son) upon the mizbe'ach?#2:21 Gn 22:9,12
22Hinei! While Avraham Avinuʼs Emunah was working, working right alongside was Avraham Avinuʼs Ma'asim, and by Ma'asim the emunah was made shleimah!
23And the Kitvei Hakodesh was fulfilled, Avraham Avinu V'HE'EMIN BA'HASHEM VAYACHSHEVE'HA LO TZEDAKAH#2:23 Gn 15:6 (believed Hashem and it was accounted to him for righteousness). He was even called “Ohev Hashem”#2:23 Gn 15:6; Isa 41:8; 2Chr 20:7 (“Friend of G-d”).
24You see that from Ma'asim#2:24 of Emunah a man is YITZDAK IM HASHEM and not from#2:24 sterilely unpartnered “Emunah” alone.#2:24 i.e., mere intellectual assent
25And likewise also Rachav the Zonah — was she not made YITZDAK IM HASHEM from Ma'asim, having received the messengers and having sent them out a different way?
26For just as the guf (body) without the neshamah is niftar (deceased, dead), so also is Emunah without Ma'asim.
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THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
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