James 2:1-13

New Testament for Everyone

No favorites!

2 My brothers and sisters, as you practice the faith of our Lord Jesus, the anointed King of glory, you must do so without favoritism. ² What I mean is this: if someone comes into your assembly wearing gold rings, all dressed up, and a poor person comes in wearing shabby clothes, ³ you cast your eyes over the person wearing fine clothes and say, “Please! Have a seat up here!” but then you turn to the poor person and say, “Stand there!” or, “Get down there by my footstool!” ⁴ When you do this, are you not discriminating among yourselves? Are you not turning into judges with evil thoughts? ⁵ Listen, my dear brothers and sisters. Isn’t it the case that God has chosen the poor (as the world sees it) to be rich in faith, and to inherit the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor man. After all, who are the rich? The rich are the ones who lord it over you and drag you into court, aren’t they? ⁷ The rich are the ones who blaspheme the wonderful name which has been pronounced over you, aren’t they?

⁸ Supposing, however, you keep the royal law, as it is written, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”; if you do this, you will do well. ⁹ But if you show favoritism, you are committing sin, and you will be convicted by the law as a lawbreaker. ¹⁰ Anyone who keeps the whole law, you see, but fails in one point, has become guilty of all of it. ¹¹ For the one who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” So if you do not commit adultery, but do murder, you have become a lawbreaker. ¹² Speak and act in such a way as people who are going to be judged by the law of freedom. ¹³ Judgment is without mercy, you see, for those who have shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over judgment.