have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
Parallel translations
- WEB haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
- KJV Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
- NKJV have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
- NASB have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?
- NLT doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
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.
Quick answer
By favoring the rich, they have made distinctions and become judges with evil motives. Partiality is a form of corrupt, sinful judgment.
Overview
James names the offense: such favoritism makes believers judges who discriminate from wicked motives. They have set themselves up as arbiters of worth using the world's standards rather than God's. The rhetorical question presses readers to recognize that partiality is not a minor lapse but a serious sin of misjudgment.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- John 7:24Stop judging by outward appearances, and start judging justly.”
- Job 34:19who is not partial to princes and does not favor rich over poor? For they are all the work of His hands.
- Matt 7:1–5“Do not judge, or you will be judged.
- Jas 4:11Brothers, 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.
- Mal 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.”
- Ps 82:2“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
- Ps 58:1For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Miktam of David. Do you indeed speak justly, O rulers? Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men?
- Job 21:27Behold, I know your thoughts full well, the schemes by which you would wrong me.
- Ps 109:31For He stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from the condemners of his soul.
- Jas 1:1–27James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes of the Dispersion: Greetings.
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Christ at the center
The wisdom from above and the royal law of love are the life of those who belong to 'our glorious Lord Jesus Christ' — faith in him made visible in works.
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Original language
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