Modern Literal Version
[James 2]


     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, You sit here; good; and you* may have said to the poor person, You stand there or sit here under my footstool. 2:4 And did you* not discern among yourselves and become 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, НYou will love* your neighbor like yourself,М 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, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. {Ex. 20:13-14, Deut. 5:17-18} Now if you do not commit adultery, but murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.2:12 You* speak so and you* 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. And yet you* do not give them the bodyМs requirements; what does it profit? 2:17 So also yourfaith, 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, НAnd Abraham believed God and it was counted to him *for righteousnessМ, 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 And 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.



Modern Literal Version Preface & Appendix , copyright 1987, 1999, 2013 by G. Allen Walker for the MLV New Testament Committee.
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