English Standard Version  
Chapter 2
The Sin of Partiality
1My brothers,Or brothers and sisters; also verses 5, 14 show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
2For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in,
3and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,”
4have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?
6But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?
7Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
8If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
9But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
10For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
11For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
12So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
13For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Faith Without Works Is Dead
14What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
15If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,
16and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what goodOr benefit is that?
17So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
19You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
20Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
21Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
22You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;
23and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
24You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
25And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
26For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
Chapter 3
Taming the Tongue
1Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
2For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.
3If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
4Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
5So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!
6And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life,Or wheel of birth and set on fire by hell.Greek Gehenna
7For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind,
8but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
10From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers,Or brothers and sisters; also verse 12 these things ought not to be so.
11Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?
12Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
Wisdom from Above
13Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.
14But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.
15This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
16For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
17But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
18And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Chapter 4
Warning Against Worldliness
1What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passionsGreek pleasures; also verse 3 are at war within you?Greek in your members
2You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.
3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
4You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?
6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.Or brothers and sisters The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
12There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Boasting About Tomorrow
13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—
14yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
15Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
16As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

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