James 2
2
1 MY BRETHREN, pay no servile regard to people [show no prejudice, no partiality]. Do not [attempt to] hold and practice the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ [the Lord] of glory [together with snobbery]!
2 For if a person comes into your congregation whose hands are adorned with gold rings and who is wearing splendid apparel, and also a poor [man] in shabby clothes comes in,
3 And you pay special attention to the one who wears the splendid clothes and say to him, Sit here in this preferable seat! while you tell the poor [man], Stand there! or, Sit there on the floor at my feet!
4 Are you not discriminating among your own and becoming critics and judges with wrong motives?
5 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and in their position as believers and to inherit the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him?
6 But you [in contrast] have insulted (humiliated, dishonored, and shown your contempt for) the poor. Is it not the rich who domineer over you? Is it not they who drag you into the law courts?
7 Is it not they who slander and blaspheme that precious name by which you are distinguished and called [the name of Christ invoked in baptism]?
8 If indeed you [really] fulfill the royal Law in accordance with the Scripture, You shall love your neighbor as [you love] yourself, you do well. [Lev. 19:18.]
9 But if you show servile regard (prejudice, favoritism) for people, you commit sin and are rebuked and convicted by the Law as violators and offenders.
10 For whosoever keeps the Law [as a] whole but stumbles and offends in one [single instance] has become guilty of [breaking] all of it.
11 For He Who said, You shall not commit adultery, also said, You shall not kill. If you do not commit adultery but do kill, you have become guilty of transgressing the [whole] Law. [Exod. 20:13, 14; Deut. 5:17, 18.]
12 So speak and so act as [people should] who are to be judged under the law of liberty [the moral instruction given by Christ, especially about love].
13 For to him who has shown no mercy the judgment [will be] merciless, but mercy [full of glad confidence] exults victoriously over judgment.
14 What is the use (profit), my brethren, for anyone to profess to have faith if he has no [good] works [to show for it]? Can [such] faith save [his soul]?
15 If a brother or sister is poorly clad and lacks food for each day,
16 And one of you says to him, Good-bye! Keep [yourself] warm and well fed, without giving him the necessities for the body, what good does that do?
17 So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).
18 But someone will say [to you then], You [say you] have faith, and I have [good] works. Now you show me your [alleged] faith apart from any [good] works [if you can], and I by [good] works [of obedience] will show you my faith.
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. So do the demons believe and shudder [in terror and horror such as make a man's hair stand on end and contract the surface of his skin]!
20 Are you willing to be shown [proof], you foolish (unproductive, spiritually deficient) fellow, that faith apart from [good] works is inactive and ineffective and worthless?
21 Was not our forefather Abraham [shown to be] justified (made acceptable to God) by [his] works when he brought to the altar as an offering his [own] son Isaac? [Gen. 22:1-14.]
22 You see that [his] faith was cooperating with his works, and [his] faith was completed and reached its supreme expression [when he implemented it] by [good] works.
23 And [so] the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed in (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on) God, and this was accounted to him as righteousness (as conformity to God's will in thought and deed), and he was called God's friend. [Gen. 15:6; II Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8.]
24 You see that a man is justified (pronounced righteous before God) through what he does and not alone through faith [through works of obedience as well as by what he believes].
25 So also with Rahab the harlot–was she not shown to be justified (pronounced righteous before God) by [good] deeds when she took in the scouts (spies) and sent them away by a different route? [Josh. 2:1-21.]
26 For as the human body apart from the spirit is lifeless, so faith apart from [its] works of obedience is also dead.
Currently Selected:
James 2: AMPC
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
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.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
FOURTH EDITION © Artists For Israel Intl Inc., 2002-2011, 2021.