Alright, I read\u00a0the two links you had for me<\/a>, and they cleared a lot up.\u00a0 I read the second chapter and by what I can understand, the first part talks about following the law completely, and not just following one and leaving the other, because even if you follow all but one, you are still going be held responsible for that one.\u00a0 I wasn’t sure if it was saying that it negates following the other laws or not though.\u00a0 The second part talked about practicing your faith, not just having it.\u00a0 I assume something like by what you do your faith is shown?\u00a0 Saying you are faithful but not doing anything to show it is the same as not having faith at all?<\/p>\n\t Good work. Let’s first review what you read. Chapter two can be summarized as a discussion on equality.<\/p>\n Verses 1-7:<\/strong>\u00a0The emphasis is on the fact that all Christians are equal before God. Wealth, position, or authority does not make one Christian better than another. Too often we judge a person’s character by their place in this world than by how they live before God. See Galatians 3:26-29 for another similar statement.<\/p>\n Verses 8-9:<\/strong>\u00a0The reason behind this equal treatment of brethren is the command to love your neighbor as yourself. The command implies equal treatment of other people. You cannot pick and choose which laws you would like to keep and which you would like to ignore.<\/p>\n Verses 10-13:<\/strong> All of God’s law is equally important. Some are weightier, as Jesus said in Matthew 23:23, in that some have broader applications than others, but no law is so unimportant that we can ignore it. After all, law comes from God, not man. We are not in the position to decide what laws are important and which are not (Jeremiah 10:23). No law can be negated by the whim of man.<\/p>\n Verses 14-26:<\/strong> God wants both our faith and our obedience. The two concepts are tightly coupled. Faith doesn’t truly exist without obedience. Thus the idea often promoted that “all you have to do is believe” is false. That is placing one command, belief, above another command, obey. “If you love Me, keep My commandments<\/em>” (John 14:15). Faith is shown by the willing obedience of the faithful.<\/p>\n I would like you to read the article “The Nature of Law<\/a>” and “The Reason for Regulations<\/a>” to give you a better foundation. Then go through James 3 as you have before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Alright, I read\u00a0the two links you had for me, and they cleared a lot up.\u00a0 I read the second chapter and by what I can understand, the first part talks about following the law completely, and not just following one and leaving the other, because even if you follow all but one, you are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[49,53,335],"class_list":["post-11042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-faith","tag-faith-alone","tag-james"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48923,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-james-say-we-will-be-judged-by-the-law-of-liberty\/","url_meta":{"origin":11042,"position":0},"title":"Why does James say we will be judged by the law of liberty?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm having some difficulties understanding James 2:8-13. When he talks about the royal law in verses 8-11, it clearly refers to some of the ten commandments. But I get confused in verse 12 \"So speak and so act, as those who are to be judged by the law of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10927,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/questions-about-james-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":11042,"position":1},"title":"Questions about James 1","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read the first chapter, it was only a page so I hope its the right one.\u00a0 I think I got most of it. It talks about being joyful for the trials because they give you patience. the more you face things the easier it gets?\u00a0 Then it says\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1933,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-does-obedience-relate-to-saving-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":11042,"position":2},"title":"How does obedience relate to saving faith?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 19, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How does obedience relate to saving faith? Answer: \"What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, \"Depart\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91157,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/by-works-or-not\/","url_meta":{"origin":11042,"position":3},"title":"By Works or Not?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 10, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton An atheist thinks he sees the following verses as \"contradicting\" each other. Atheist: Salvation by Faith or Works: \u2022 Ephesians 2:8-9: \"For by grace you have been saved through faith\u2026not a result of works.\" \u2022 James 2:24: \"You see that a person is justified by works\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28249,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-exactly-meant-by-works\/","url_meta":{"origin":11042,"position":4},"title":"What is exactly meant by works?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a member of the Missouri Synod denomination, although I really don't like to see the denominations as \"separations.\" I like to see us all as Christians -- just Christians with different ideas. Anyway, I had read that faith without works is dead. Which I do agree with.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51981,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-be-forgiven-of-the-sins-that-i-committed-after-saying-the-sinners-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":11042,"position":5},"title":"Can I be forgiven of the sins that I committed after saying the sinner’s prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I got saved by saying a sinner's prayers at 19. I spent most of my twenties high-handedly sinning and being agnostic or universalist - I believed all religions were partially true. I read the Bible and Quran occasionally for inspiration. Three years ago I started going to a Baptist\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Answer:<\/h2>\n