But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.
Parallel Translations
-
But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.
-
But yf ye regarde one person more then another ye commit synne and are rebuked of the lawe as transgressours.
-
But if yee regarde the persons, yee commit sinne, and are rebuked of the Lawe, as transgressours.
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to James 2:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Leviticus 19:15 “ ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor show favoritism to the great; but you shall judge your neighbor in righteousness.
- James 2:1-4 My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality. For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in, and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing and say, “Sit here in a good place;” and you tell the poor man, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my footstool” haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
- John 8:9 They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone with the woman where she was, in the middle.
- John 8:46 Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?
- John 16:8 When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment;
- Romans 3:20 Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
- 1 John 3:4 Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.
- Romans 7:7-13 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead. I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. The commandment which was for life, this I found to be for death; for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good. Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful.
- 1 Corinthians 14:24 But if all prophesy, and someone unbelieving or unlearned comes in, he is reproved by all, and he is judged by all.
- Galatians 2:19 For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God.
- Jude 1:15 to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain When, in the second place, he says, that those…
When, in the second place, he says, that those who had respect of persons were convinced, or reproved by the law, the law is taken according to its proper meaning. For since we are bidden by God’s command to embrace all mortals, every one who, with a few exceptions, rejects all the rest, breaks the bond of God, and inverts also his order, and is, therefore, rightly called a transgressor of the law.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye…
9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
Ver. 9. Ye commit sin] That is flat; though ye have thought otherwise. {See Trapp on "Jas 2:4"}
Read full note →
And are convinced of the law as transgressors] This they held either no sin or a small one, a peccadillo. The Civilian indeed saith, De minutis non curat lex, the law makes no matter of small matters. But God’s law condemneth small faults: as the sunshine showeth us atoms, moths.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit…
But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin; the second part of the apostle’s answer, in which he sets persons in opposition to neighbour: q.d. If you, instead of loving your neighbour, which excludes no sort of men, poor no more than rich, choose and single out (as ye do) only some few (viz. rich men) to whom ye give respect, despising others, ye are so far from fulfilling the royal law, that ye sin against it.
And are convinced of the law; either by the particular law against respecting persons, Lev 19:15, or rather, by that very law you urge; your thus partially respecting the rich to the excluding of the poor, being so contrary to the command of loving your neighbour, which excludes none.
Read full note →
As transgressors; i.e. to be transgressors, viz. of the whole law, as fellows.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit…
But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, &c. This is not doing well, but is a transgression of the law, as every sin is; hence it follows,
and are convinced of the law as transgressors; which carries on a formal process against such persons; it accuses them of sin, and charges them with it; it proves it upon them, and convicts them of it; it pronounces them guilty, and curses them for it; and passes the sentence of condemnation and death upon them; wherefore care should be taken not to commit this sin, and so fall under the convictions and reproofs of the law.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Being convicted - By that very law. Exod. xxiii,…
Being convicted - By that very law. Exod. xxiii, 3.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 9. But if ye have respect to persons]…
Verse 9. But if ye have respect to persons] In judgment, or in any other way; ye commit sin against God, and against your brethren, and are convinced, ελεγχομενοι, and are convicted, by the law; by this royal law, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; as transgressors, having shown this sinful acceptance of persons, which has led you to refuse justice to the poor man, and uphold the rich in his oppressive conduct.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit…
But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin - You transgress the plain law of God, and do wrong. See the references on Jam 2:1.
And are convinced of the law as transgressors - Greek “By the law.” The word convinced is now used in a somewhat different sense from what it was formerly. It now commonly refers to the impression made on a man’s mind by showing him the truth of a thing which before was doubted, or in respect to which the evidence was not clear. A man who doubted the truth of a report or a proposition may be convinced or satisfied of its truth; a man who has done wrong, though he supposed he was doing what was proper, may be convinced of his error. So a man may be convinced that he is a sinner, though before he had no belief of it, and no concern about it; and this may produce in his mind the feeling which is technically known as conviction, producing deep distress and anguish. See the notes at Joh 16:8. Here, however, the word does not refer so much to the effect produced on the mind itself, as to the fact that the law would hold such an one to be guilty; that is, the law pronounces what is done to be wrong. Whether they would be personally convinced of it, and troubled about it as convicted sinners, would be a different question, and one to which the apostle does not refer; for his object is not to show that they would be troubled about it, but to show that the law of God condemned this course, and would hold them to be guilty. The argument here is not from the personal distress which this course would produce in their own minds, but from the fact that the law of God condemned it.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Respect of persons violates the command to love all…
Respect of persons violates the command to love all alike "as thyself."
ye commit sin--literally, "ye work sin," Mat 7:23, to which the reference here is probably, as in Jam 1:22. Your works are sin, whatever boast of the law ye make in words (see on Jam 2:8).
Read full note →
convinced--Old English for "convicted."
as transgressors--not merely of this or that particular command, but of the whole absolutely.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 9. Respect to persons—Honouring the wicked because rich and…
9. Respect to persons—Honouring the wicked because rich and oppressive, spurning the poor in spite of piety and humbleness.
Commit sin—The reverse of do well.
Read full note →
Convinced—Detected, convicted.
The law—The royal law, which enjoins dealing according to merit, and, therefore, the whole law.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 9. but if ye have respect to persons] The…
9. but if ye have respect to persons] The Greek gives a compound verb which is not found elsewhere, If ye be person-accepting.
ye commit sin] The Greek is more emphatic, “It is sin that ye are working, being convicted by the Law.” However generally decorous their lives might be, yet through this one offence they failed to meet the requirements of the Law. The way in which they dealt with rich and poor was, in the strictest sense of the term, a crucial test.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (9) But if ye have respect to persons .…
(9) But if ye have respect to persons . . .—Translate, But if ye respect persons, ye work sin, and are convicted by the Law (i.e., at the bar of conscience) as transgressors. The first principle has been broken, and not a mere detail. De minimis non curat lex: the laws of men cannot concern themselves with trifles; but the most secret soul may be proven and revealed by some little act of love, or the contrary: and such is the way of the Lord “that searcheth the hearts” (Rom_8:27).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And are convinced, etc.; better, with R.V, being convicted…
And are convinced, etc.; better, with R.V, being convicted by the law (ejlegcomenoi uJpomou). The Law of Moses directly forbade all respect of persons; see, Lev_19:15 (three verses above the passage just quoted by St. James) Ouj lhyh proswpon ptwcou oujde mhshv proswpon dunaston.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 9. But if ye have respect to persons. Such…
9. But if ye have respect to persons. Such partiality as that described in verse 3 would break this law, and hence would be a sin, and the sinner would be convicted as a transgressor.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").
sin
Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 2:9 Favoritism violates the command to love one’s neighbor…
2:9 Favoritism violates the command to love one’s neighbor (2:8).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.