2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, 3 if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can this kind of faith 4 save him? 5
4:1 Where do the conflicts and where 6 do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, 7 from your passions that battle inside you? 8
5:1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud 9 over the miseries that are coming on you.
1 tn Grk “according to the scripture.”
2 sn A quotation from Lev 19:18 (also quoted in Matt 19:19; 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Rom 13:9; Gal 5:14).
3 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.
4 tn Grk “the faith,” referring to the kind of faith just described: faith without works. The article here is anaphoric, referring to the previous mention of the noun πίστις (pisti") in the verse. See ExSyn 219.
5 sn The form of the question in Greek expects a negative answer.
6 tn The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.
7 tn Grk “from here.”
8 tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”
9 tn Or “wail”; Grk “crying aloud.”
10 sn James’ point seems to be that instead of seeking deliverance from condemnation, they have defied God’s law (fattened your hearts) and made themselves more likely objects of his judgment (in a day of slaughter).