James 2:1-11

Lexham English Bible

Partiality Forbidden

2 My brothers, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with partiality. ² For if someone^[a] enters into your assembly^[b] in fine clothing with a gold ring on his finger, and a poor person in filthy clothing also enters, ³ and you look favorably on the one wearing the fine clothing and you say, “Be seated here in a good place,” and to the poor person you say, “You stand or be seated there^[c] by my footstool,” ⁴ have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵ Listen, my dear brothers! Did not God choose the poor of the world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor! Are not the rich exploiting you and they themselves dragging you into the courts? ⁷ Do they themselves not blaspheme the good name of the one to whom you belong^[d]?

⁸ However, if you carry out the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”^[e] you are doing well. ⁹ But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and thus^[f] are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point only has become guilty of all of it. ¹¹ For the one who said “Do not commit adultery”^[g] also said “Do not murder.”^[h] Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.