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James 2 (AMP)

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¹ MY BRETHREN, pay no servile regard to people . Do not hold and practice the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory ! 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 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 , 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 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 ? ⁸ If indeed you fulfill the royal Law in accordance with the Scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well. 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 whole but stumbles and offends in one has become guilty of 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 Law. ¹² So speak and so act as who are to be judged under the law of liberty . ¹³ For to him who has shown no mercy the judgment merciless, but mercy exults victoriously over judgment. ¹⁴ What is the use (profit), my brethren, for anyone to profess to have faith if he has no works ? Can faith save ? 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 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 , You have faith, and I have works. Now you show me your faith apart from any works , and I by works will show you my faith. ¹⁹ You believe that God is one; you do well. So do the demons believe and shudder ! ²⁰ Are you willing to be shown , you foolish (unproductive, spiritually deficient) fellow, that faith apart from works is inactive and ineffective and worthless? ²¹ Was not our forefather Abraham justified (made acceptable to God) by works when he brought to the altar as an offering his son Isaac? ²² You see that faith was cooperating with his works, and faith was completed and reached its supreme expression by works. ²³ And 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. ²⁴ You see that a man is justified (pronounced righteous before God) through what he does and not alone through faith . ²⁵ So also with Rahab the harlot--was she not shown to be justified (pronounced righteous before God) by deeds when she took in the scouts (spies) and sent them away by a different route? ²⁶ For as the human body apart from the spirit is lifeless, so faith apart from works of obedience is also dead.