Jan 26, 2025
EXODUS 5-6:
Moses has responded to God's call, returned to
Egypt with Aaron, and has had a successful meeting with the leaders
of the Israelite people.
JOB 33:
This
is Elihu's second chapter of six in his speech.
JAMES 2:
Yesterday James told us to consider it a great
joy when troubles come our way. Don't miss James’ reasoning for
this seeming contradiction. Then he spoke very strongly about not
just being people who merely listen to God's Word. We must do
it.
NLT Translation
notes:
Jam. 2:1
My dear brothers and sisters, a how can you claim to
[fully believe//have faith] in our glorious Lord [Christ
Jesus//Jesus Christ] if
you favor some people over others?
5 Listen to me, dear brothers and sisters.
Hasn’t God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in
[the area of fully believing in
Christ//faith]? Aren’t
they the ones who will inherit the Kingdom he promised to those who
love him?
6 But you
dishonor the poor! Isn’t it the rich who oppress you and drag you
into court? 7 Aren’t they the ones who slander
[Christ Jesus//Jesus Christ], whose noble nameyou
bear?
10 For the person
who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty
[of being a law breaker as the//as a] person who has broken all of God’s laws. 11 For
the same God who said, “You must not commit
adultery.”
HEADING: [Believing without Good
Deeds Is Dead Religion//Faith without Good Deeds Is
Dead]
14 What good is
it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you
[believe/have faith] but don’t show it by your actions? Can that
kind of [believing/faith] save anyone?
17 So you see,
[believing/faith] by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good
deeds, it is dead [religion/0] and useless.
18 Now [I can just hear someone
arguing//someone may argue], “Some people [are good at
believing//have faith];
others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me
[that you believe//your faith] if you don’t have good deeds? I will show
you [that I fully believe through//my
faith] by my good
deeds.”
19 You say
you [believe//have faith], [because/for]
you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the
demons believe
[that/this], and
they tremble in terror. 20 How foolish! Can’t you see that
[believing/faith] without good deeds is
useless?
22 You
see, [believing/faith] and his actions worked together. His actions
made his [believing/faith] complete [in God's
sight]. 23 And so it
happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because
of his [fully believing//faith].” He was even called the friend of God. 24 So
you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not
by [believing/faith] alone.
[I hope you remember why I use ‘believe’
instead of ‘faith’. ‘Faith’ and ‘believe’ translate the same root
word (pistin/pisteuw) in Greek. 1. Faith is fuzzy because the word
has taken on all sorts of meanings. 2. If you tell someone to have
faith, they will likely ask, “But how?” Faith is not a volitional
action. But believing is. 3. And finally I make the changes above
for maintaining cohesion. In a verse like 23, it is important that
the two phrases use the same word: ‘Abraham believed God’, and … ‘because of his believing’— that believing just mentioned, not some
fuzzy thing Hollywood and our culture calls
‘faith’.]
26 Just as the
body is dead without breath, so also [merely
believing is just dead religion//faith is dead]
without good works.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.