¹³ Return their cloak by sunset^(A) so that your neighbor may sleep in it.^(B) Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God.^(C)

²⁵ And if we are careful to obey all this law^(A) before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.^(B)”

¹⁵ Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor^(A) and are counting on it.^(B) Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.^(C)

²⁶ If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge,^(A) return it by sunset, ²⁷ because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in?^(B) When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.^(C)

¹³ because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.^(A) Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith and Deeds

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?^(B) Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.^{(C) 16} If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?^{(D) 17} In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.^(E)

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds,^(F) and I will show you my faith^(G) by my deeds.^{(H) 19} You believe that there is one God.^(I) Good! Even the demons believe that^(J)—and shudder.

²⁰ You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless^[a]?^{(K) 21} Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?^{(L) 22} You see that his faith and his actions were working together,^(M) and his faith was made complete by what he did.^{(N) 23} And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”^[b](O) and he was called God’s friend.^(P)

²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after^(A) orphans and widows^(B) in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.^(C)

¹⁶ May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus,^(A) because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed^(B) of my chains.^{(C) 17} On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. ¹⁸ May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day!^(D) You know very well in how many ways he helped me^(E) in Ephesus.^(F)