Warning Against Partiality

2 My brothers, have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, without partiality. ² For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your assembly, and also a poor man in ragged clothing comes in, ³ and you have respect for him who wears the fine clothing and say to him, “Sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor, “Stand there,” or “Sit here under my footstool,” ⁴ have you not then become partial among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers. Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him? ⁶ But you have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you and drag you before the judgment seats? ⁷ Do they not blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called?

⁸ If you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”^[a] you are doing well. ⁹ But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as sinners. ¹⁰ For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point is guilty of breaking the whole law. ¹¹ For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,”^[b] also said, “Do not kill.”^[c] Now if you do not commit adultery, yet you kill, you have become a lawbreaker.

¹² So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³ For he who has shown no mercy will have judgment without mercy, for mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith and Works

¹⁴ What does it profit, my brothers, if a man says he has faith but has no works? Can faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and lacking daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” and yet you give them nothing that the body needs, what does it profit? ¹⁷ So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

¹⁸ But a man may say, “You have faith and I have works.”

Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God; you do well. The demons also believe and tremble.

²⁰ But do you want to be shown, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? ²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² Do you see how faith worked with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? ²³ The Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,”^[d] and he was called the friend of God. ²⁴ You see then how by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

²⁵ Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? ²⁶ As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.