2 ¹ MY BROTHERS, believing as you do in our Lord Jesus Christ, who reigns in glory, you must never show snobbery. 2 ² For instance, two visitors may enter your place of worship, one a well-dressed man with gold rings, and the other a poor man in shabby clothes. 2 ³ Suppose you pay special attention to the well-dressed man and say to him, 'Please take this seat', while to the poor man you say, 'You can stand; or you may sit here Some witnesses read: Stand where you are or sit here ... . Others read: Stand where you are or sit ... on the floor by my footstool', 2 ⁴ do you not see that you are inconsistent and judge by false standards? 2 ⁵ Listen, my friends. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he has promised to those 2 ⁶ who love him? And yet you have insulted the poor man. Moreover, are not the rich your oppressors? 2 ⁷ Is it not they who drag you into court and pour contempt on the honoured name by which God has claimed you?

2 ^{8 [ Lv.19.18. ]} If, however, you are observing the sovereign law laid down in Scripture, 'Love your neighbour as yourself', that is excellent. 2 ⁹ But if you show snobbery, you are committing a sin and you stand convicted by that law as transgressors. 2 ¹⁰ For if a man keeps the whole law apart from one single point, he is guilty of breaking all of it. 2 ^{11 [ Ex.20.14, Dt.5.17. ]} For the One who said, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery', said also, 'Thou shalt not commit murder.' You may not be an adulterer, but if you commit murder you are a law-breaker all the same. 2 ¹² Always speak and act as men who are to be judged under a law of freedom. 2 ¹³ In that judgement there will be no mercy for the man who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgement.