James 2:4
2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in.
3 If you lavish attention on the man in fine clothes and say, “Here is a seat of honor,” but say to the poor man, “You must stand” or “Sit at my feet,”
have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?
Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
- KJV
- Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
- WEB
- haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
- ASV
- Do ye not make distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
- DARBY
- have ye not made a difference among yourselves, and become judges having evil thoughts?
- BLB
- then did you⁺ not make a distinction among yourselves and become judges [with] evil reasonings?
- ÅB
- gjør dere da ikke forskjell hos dere selv og er blitt dommere med onde tanker?
- OTB
- har dere ikke da diskriminert blant dere selv og blitt dommere med onde motiver?
- B1930
- gjør I da ikke forskjell hos eder selv og er blitt dommere med onde tanker?
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
John 7:24
Stop judging by outward appearances, and start judging justly.”
Read in contextJob 34:19
who is not partial to princes and does not favor rich over poor? For they are all the work of His hands.
Read in contextMatthew 7:1–5
“Do not judge, or you will be judged.
Read in contextPsalms 82:2
“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
Read in contextJames 4:11
Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. And if you judge the law, you are not a practitioner of the law, but a judge of it.
Read in contextMalachi 2:9
“So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”
Read in contextPsalms 58:1
Do you indeed speak justly, O rulers? Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men?
Read in contextPsalms 109:31
For He stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from the condemners of his soul.
Read in context