James 1:19-2:17

Christian Standard Bible

Hearing and Doing the Word

¹⁹ My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,^{(A) 20} for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. ²¹ Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent,^[a] humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.^(B)

²² But^(C) be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face^[b] in a mirror. ²⁴ For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. ²⁵ But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.^(D)

²⁶ If anyone^[c] thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue,^(E) his religion is useless and he deceives himself. ²⁷ Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows^(F) in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.^(G)

The Sin of Favoritism

2 My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.^{(H) 2} For 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, ³ if 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,” ⁴ haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world^(I) to be rich in faith^(J) and heirs^(K) of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? ⁶ Yet you have dishonored the poor.^(L) Don’t the rich oppress you and drag^(M) you into court? ⁷ Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?^(N)

⁸ Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself,^[d](O) you are doing well. ⁹ If, however, you show favoritism,^(P) you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.^{(Q) 11} For he who said, Do not commit adultery,^[e] also said, Do not murder.^[f](R) So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.

¹² Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.^{(S) 13} For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy.^(T) Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith and Works

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?

¹⁵ If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food ¹⁶ and 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?^{(U) 17} In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.