2
Warning Against Partiality
1 My brothers, practice your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, without showing partiality.
2 Suppose a man in fine clothing comes into your assembly wearing a gold ring, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in.
3 If you pay attention to the man who is wearing fine clothing and say to him, “Yoʋ sit here in a good place,” but you say to the poor man, “Yoʋ stand there, or sit here under my footstool,”
4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Are they not the ones who drag you into court?
7 Do they not blaspheme the good name by which you are called?
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “Yoʋ shall love yoʋr neighbor as yoʋrself,” you do well.
9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
10 For whoever keeps the entire law but stumbles in one point has become guilty of it all.
11 For he who said, “Yoʋ shall not commit adultery,” also said, “Yoʋ shall not murder.” Now if yoʋ do not commit adultery but do commit murder, yoʋ have become a transgressor of the law.
12 Speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.
13 For judgment is without mercy to anyone who has not shown mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
Faith and Works
14 What is the benefit, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacks daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them anything to address their physical needs, what is the benefit?
17 In the same way faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “Yoʋ have faith, and I have works.” Show me yoʋr faith by yoʋr works, and I, by my works, will show yoʋ my faith.
19 Yoʋ believe that God is one; yoʋ do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
20 Do yoʋ want to be shown, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
21 Was not our father Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
22 Do yoʋ see how faith was active along with his works, and by works his faith was brought to completion?
23 And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God.
24 You see then that a person is justified by works, and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.