James 2
EasyEnglish Bible
Every person has equal value
2 My Christian friends, you must be kind to everyone. You trust the Lord Jesus Christ, who is great in heaven. So do not think that anyone is more valuable than any other person.
2 When you are meeting together as believers, maybe two men will come to join with you. One of them is wearing beautiful clothes, and he has gold rings on his hands. The other man is poor, and he is wearing old clothes that are dirty. 3 You are kind to the man who is wearing beautiful clothes. You say to him, ‘Please sit here in this good place.’ But you say to the poor man, ‘Go and stand over there.’ Or you may say to him, ‘Sit on the floor near my feet.’ 4 If you do that, you are thinking bad thoughts. You have decided that one person among you is better than another person. You must not do that.
5 My Christian friends, listen to me. God has chosen to bless people who are poor in this world. He has helped them to trust him. So really they are rich. God will give to them a place in his kingdom. He has promised to do that for all people who love him. 6 But you have not been kind to people who are poor. You have caused them to feel ashamed. Who causes you to have troubles? It is the rich people! They are the people who want the judges to punish you. 7 It is the rich people who say bad things against the good name of Jesus Christ. And you are called Christians because you belong to him.
8 But the message of God's kingdom is this: ‘Love other people as much as you love yourself.’ That is what the Bible says. If you really do that, you do well. 9 But if you are kind to some people and you are not kind to others, then you are doing a bad thing. God's Law shows that you are wrong. 10 Even if you fail to obey only one rule in God's Law, it means that you are guilty. It is the same as if you fail to obey all God's Law. 11 For example, God has said in his Law, ‘You must not have sex with anyone who is not your husband or your wife.’ But God has also said, ‘Do not kill another person.’ Perhaps you do not have sex in a wrong way like that. But if you then murder someone, God's Law shows that you are still wrong.
12 Remember that God will judge you one day. When he does that, he will use a law which makes us free. So remember this in everything that you say and in everything that you do. 13 God will not forgive anyone who has not forgiven other people. But God is kind! He judges us, but even more than that, he forgives us!
Believe God and do good things
14 My Christian brothers, you say that you believe in God. Then you must show this in the things that you do. If not, your faith will not help you. It will not save you. 15 For example, maybe a believer does not have enough clothes to wear or enough food to eat. 16 Then one of you may say to them, ‘Go with God's peace! I pray that you will be warm. I pray that you will eat well.’ But if you do not give to them what they need, that does not help them at all. 17 How we believe in God is also like that. If our faith does not lead us to do good things, then it is not worth anything. It is dead!
18 Someone may say, ‘You believe in God, but I do good things to help people.’ Then I would say, ‘You cannot show me that you believe in God if you do not do good things. I do good things, and that shows that I really believe in God.’ 19 You believe that there is only one God. That is good! But even the demons believe that! And it makes them very afraid.
20 You fool! If someone's faith does not lead them to do good things, it is not worth anything. You should know that! 21 Think about our ancestor Abraham. He offered his son Isaac on the altar as a gift to God.[a] Because he did that good thing, God accepted him as right with himself. 22 Abraham believed in God, and he did what God asked him to do. So you can see that both of these were necessary. When he did this good thing, he showed that he believed in God completely. 23 The Bible tells us what happened. It says, ‘Abraham believed God. As a result, God accepted Abraham as right with him.’[b] God also called Abraham his friend.
24 So you see how God accepts someone as right with himself. That person must not only believe in God. He must also do good things to show that he has faith.
25 It was the same with Rahab, long ago. She was a prostitute. She helped some of God's people who came to her house. She kept them safe from their enemies and she sent them away again by a different road.[c] Because she did those good things, God accepted her as right with himself. 26 If our bodies have no spirit, they are dead. In the same way, if our faith does not lead us to do good things, it is dead.
Footnotes
- 2:21 See Genesis 22.
- 2:23 See Genesis 15:6.
- 2:25 See Joshua 2:1-22; 6:23.
Yaakov 2
Orthodox Jewish Bible
2 My Achim b’Moshiach, you do not with your acts of maso panim (favoritism) hold to the [orthodox Jewish] emunah of the glorious Adoneinu Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua. [DEVARIM 1:17; VAYIKRA 19:15; MISHLE 24:23]
2 For 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),
3 and 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,"
4 did you not among yourselves differentiate with prejudice and became shofetim (judges) with machshavot re’sha (evil thoughts)?
5 Hinei! 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? [IYOV 34:19]
6 But 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)?
7 Do they not commit Chillul Hashem gidduf (blasphemy) against the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach’s Shem Tov that has been named upon you?
8 If indeed you are shomer regarding the Dat HaMalkhut (Royal Decree), as it is written in the Kitvei Hakodesh, "V’AHAVTAH L’REI’ACHA KAMOCHA" ("And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." [VAYIKRA 19:18]) you do well.
9 But if you show maso panim (favoritism), you are chote’im (sinners) committing averos (transgressions) against the Torah. [DEVARIM 1:17]
10 For whoever is shomer over kol haTorah but stumbles in one mitzvah, such is condemned as ashem (guilty) of averoh (transgression) of kol mitzvot.
11 For 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). [SHEMOT 20:13,14; DEVARIM 5:17,18]
12 So let your dvarim (words) be and so let your ma’asim (deeds) be as those who are about to come under the judgment of the Torah HaCherut [1:25].
13 For the Din (Judgment) will be without rachamim (mercy) to the one not having shown rachamim. Rachamim wins the nitzachon (victory) over HaDin.
14 What 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?
15 If an Ach b’Moshiach or an Achot b’Moshiach is dressed in shmattes (tatters) and lacking "lechem chukeinu" ("our daily bread," Mt.6:11)
16 and 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)?
17 So also Emunah, if alongside it there is not in its company Ma’asim, is by itself niftar (deceased, dead).
18 But 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.
19 So 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! [DEVARIM 6:4]
20 Are you willing to have da’as, O hollow man, that Emunah unharnessed to Ma’asim, stands idle?
21 Avraham 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? [BERESHIS 22:9,12]
22 Hinei! While Avraham Avinu’s Emunah was working, working right alongside was Avraham Avinu’s Ma’asim, and by Ma’asim the emunah was made shleimah!
23 And the Kitvei Hakodesh was fulfilled, Avraham Avinu V’HE’EMIN BA’HASHEM VAYACHSHEVE’HA LO TZEDAKAH ("believed Hashem and it was accounted to him for righteousness," BERESHIS 15:6). He was even called "Ohev Hashem" ("Friend of G-d"). [BERESHIS 15:6; YESHAYAH 41:8; DIVREY HAYOMIM BAIS 20:7]
24 You see that from Ma’asim [of Emunah] a man is YITZDAK IM HASHEM and not from [sterilely unpartnered] “Emunah” alone. [i.e., mere intellectual assent]
25 And 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?
26 For just as the guf (body) without the neshamah is niftar (deceased, dead), so also is Emunah without Ma’asim.
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