The farmer that works with his land will have enough food. But the person who wastes time on worthless ideas is foolish.
James 2:20 - Easy To Read Version You foolish person! Must you be shown that faith that does nothing is worth nothing? Tuilleadh leaganachaKing James Version (Oxford) 1769 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Amplified Bible - Classic Edition Are you willing to be shown [proof], you foolish (unproductive, spiritually deficient) fellow, that faith apart from [good] works is inactive and ineffective and worthless? American Standard Version (1901) But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren? Common English Bible Are you so slow? Do you need to be shown that faith without actions has no value at all? Catholic Public Domain Version So then, are you willing to understand, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? |
The farmer that works with his land will have enough food. But the person who wastes time on worthless ideas is foolish.
This is what the Lord says:\par “Do you think that I was not fair\par to your ancestors {\cf2\super [4]} ?\par Is that why they turned away from me?\par Your ancestors worshiped worthless idols,\par and they became worthless themselves.\par
People knew God. But they did not give glory to God, and they did not thank him. Their ideas were all useless. There was not one good thought left in their foolish minds.
A person is not a true Jew if he is only a Jew in his physical body. True circumcision {\cf2\super [23]} is not only on the outside of the body.
\{Don’t ask that.\} You are only people. And people have no right to question God. A clay jar does not question the man that made it. The jar does not say, “Why did you make me like this?”
When a person is in Christ Jesus, it is not important if he is circumcised or not. The important thing is faith—the kind of faith that works through love.
If a person thinks that he is important when he is really not important, he is only fooling himself.
Be sure that no person leads you away with false ideas and words that mean nothing. Those ideas come from people, not Christ. Those ideas are the worthless ideas of people in the world.
Some people have not done these things. They have wandered away, and now they talk about things that are worth nothing.
There are many people who refuse to obey—people who talk about worthless things and lead other people into the wrong way. I am talking mostly about those people who say that all non-Jewish people must be circumcised. {\cf2\super [6]}
You might think you are religious (good). But if you say things you should not say, then you are fooling yourself. Your “religion” is worth nothing.
It is the same with faith. If faith does nothing, then that faith is dead, because it is alone.
A person’s body that does not have a spirit is dead. It is the same with faith—faith that does nothing is dead!