James 2
2
The Sin of Favoritism
1My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. # 2:1 Lv 19:15; Dt 1:17; Ac 10:34; Rm 2:11; Eph 6:9; Col 3:25 2For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in, 3if you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,” 4haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world # 2:5 Jb 34:19; 1Co 1:27 to be rich in faith # 2:5 Lk 12:21; Rv 2:9 and heirs # 2:5 Rm 4:13–14; 8:17; Gl 3:29; 4:7; Ti 3:7; Heb 1:2; 11:7 of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6Yet you have dishonored the poor. # 2:6 1Co 11:22 Don’t the rich oppress you and drag # 2:6 Ac 8:3; 17:6; 18:12 you into court? 7Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you? # 2:7 Is 63:19; 65:1; Am 9:12; Ac 15:17
8Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, # 2:8 Lv 19:18,# 2:8 Lv 19:18; Mt 22:39 you are doing well. 9If, however, you show favoritism, # 2:9 Lv 19:15; Dt 1:17; Ac 10:34; Rm 2:11; Eph 6:9; Col 3:25 you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all. # 2:10 Mt 5:10; Gl 3:10 11For he who said, Do not commit adultery, # 2:11 Ex 20:14; Dt 5:18 also said, Do not murder. # 2:11 Ex 20:13; Dt 5:17,# 2:11 Ex 20:13–14; Dt 5:17–18 So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.
12Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom. # 2:12 Mt 7:12,24–29; 19:17–21; 22:36–40; 28:20 13For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. # 2:13 Jb 22:6; Pr 21:13; Mt 5:7; 18:32–35 Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Faith and Works
14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?
15If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? # 2:14–16 Mt 25:35–36; Lk 3:11; 1Jn 3:16–18 17In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
18But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” # 2:18 The quotation may end here or after v. 18b or v. 19. Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works. # 2:18 Rm 3:28; Heb 11:33; Jms 3:13 19You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe — and they shudder. # 2:19 Dt 6:4; Mt 8:29; Lk 4:34
20Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? 21Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar? 22You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete, # 2:21–22 Gn 22:9; 1Th 1:3; Heb 11:17 23and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, # 2:23 Gn 15:6,# 2:23 Gn 15:6; Rm 4:3; Gl 3:6 and he was called God’s friend. # 2:23 2Ch 20:7; Is 41:8 24You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route? # 2:25 Jos 2:4,6,15; Heb 11:31 26For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
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 B'HASHEM V'YACHSHEVEHA 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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