MODERN LITERAL VERSION

2:1 My brethren, do not have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.
2:2 For* if a man comes into your* congregation* with a gold ring, in bright apparel and if a poor man in filthy apparel also comes in,
2:3 you* may have looked upon him who is wearing the bright apparel and may have said to him, Sit here; good; and you* may have said to the poor person, Stand there or sit here under my footstool.
2:4 And did you* not discern among yourselves and then became judges with evil reasonings?

2:5 Listen, my beloved brethren. Did God not choose the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love* him?
2:6 But you* have dishonored the poor. Are the rich not oppressing you*? And are they not dragging you* into the courts?
2:7 Are they not blaspheming the good name, the one which was named upon you*?
2:8 Nevertheless, if you* accomplish the royal law, according to the Scripture, ‘You will love* your neighbor like yourself,' you* are doing well. {Lev. 19:18}
2:9 But if you* have shown-partiality, you* work sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.

2:10 For* whoever keeps the whole law and yet trips in one point, he has become liable to all of it.
2:11 For* he who said, You shall not commit adultery, also said, You shall not murder. {Ex. 20:13-14, Deut. 5:17-18} But if you will not commit adultery, but yet you will commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
2:12 Speak so and practice so, as men who are about to be judged by the law of freedom.
2:13 For* judgment is merciless to him who has not practiced mercy; mercy wins over judgment.

2:14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? That faith cannot save him, can it?
2:15 But if a brother or sister is* naked and may have a lack* of daily nourishment,
2:16 and one out of you* may say to them, Go in peace. Be warmed and fed. But you* do not give them the body's requirements; what does it profit?
2:17 So also your faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself.

2:18 But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith away from your works. I will also show you my faith by my works.
2:19 You believe that God is one; you are doing well. The demons also believe and shudder.
2:20 But are you willing to know, O vain man, that faith is dead without works?

2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified from works, when he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar?
2:22 You see that faith was working together with his works and faith is perfected from works;
2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And Abraham believed God and it was counted to him *for righteousness', and he was called the friend of God. {Gen 15:6}
2:24 Now-then, you* see that a man is justified from works and not from faith alone.
2:25 Now likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified from works, in that she accepted the messengers and sent them out another way?
2:26 For* as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.