Sundry Laws

25 “^(A)If there is a dispute between men and they go to ^[a]court, and ^[b]the judges decide their case, ^(B)and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, ² then it shall be if the wicked man ^[c](C)deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes according to his ^[d]guilt. ^3 (D)He may beat him forty times but no more, so that he does not beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother is not ^(E)degraded in your eyes.

⁴ “^(F)You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.

⁵ “When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. ^(G)Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. ⁶ It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall ^[e]assume the name of his dead brother, so that ^(H)his name will not be blotted out from Israel. ^7 (I)But if the man does not desire to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’ ⁸ Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, ‘I do not desire to take her,’ ^9 (J)then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot and ^(K)spit in his face; and she shall ^[f]declare, ‘Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’ ¹⁰ In Israel his name shall be called, ‘The house of him whose sandal is removed.’

¹¹ “If two men, a man and his ^[g]countryman, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals, ¹² then you shall cut off her ^[h]hand; ^[i](L)you shall not show pity.

¹³ “^(M)You shall not have in your bag ^[j]differing weights, a large and a small. ¹⁴ You shall not have in your house ^[k]differing measures, a large and a small. ¹⁵ You shall have a full and just weight; you shall have a full and just ^[l]measure, ^(N)that your days may be prolonged in the ^[m]land which the Lord your God gives you. ¹⁶ For ^(O)everyone who does these things, everyone who acts unjustly is an abomination to the Lord your God.

¹⁷ “^(P)Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, ¹⁸ how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary; and he ^(Q)did not ^[n]fear God. ¹⁹ Therefore it shall come about when the Lord your God has given you ^(R)rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance to ^[o]possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.

A Call to Worship the Lord the Righteous Judge.

The Sin of Partiality

2 ^(A)My brethren, ^(B)do not hold your faith in our ^(C)glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of ^(D)personal favoritism. ² For if a man comes into your ^[a]assembly with a gold ring and dressed in ^[b](E)fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in ^(F)dirty clothes, ³ and you ^[c]pay special attention to the one who is wearing the ^(G)fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” ⁴ have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges ^(H)with evil ^[d]motives? ⁵ Listen, ^(I)my beloved brethren: did not ^(J)God choose the poor ^[e]of this world to be ^(K)rich in faith and ^(L)heirs of the kingdom which He ^(M)promised to those who love Him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and ^[f]personally ^(N)drag you into ^[g]court? ^7 (O)Do they not blaspheme the fair name ^[h]by which you have been called?

⁸ If, however, you ^(P)are fulfilling the ^[i]royal law according to the Scripture, “^(Q)You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. ⁹ But if you ^(R)show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the ^[j]law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole ^[k]law and yet ^(S)stumbles in one point, he has become ^(T)guilty of all. ¹¹ For He who said, “^(U)Do not commit adultery,” also said, “^(V)Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the ^[l]law. ¹² So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by ^(W)the law of liberty. ¹³ For ^(X)judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy ^[m]triumphs over judgment.

Faith and Works

^14 (Y)What use is it, ^(Z)my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can ^[n]that faith save him? ^15 (AA)If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “^(AB)Go in peace, ^[o]be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? ¹⁷ Even so ^(AC)faith, if it has no works, is ^[p]dead, being by itself.

^18 (AD)But someone ^[q]may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your ^(AE)faith without the works, and I will ^(AF)show you my faith ^(AG)by my works.” ¹⁹ You believe that ^[r](AH)God is one. ^(AI)You do well; ^(AJ)the demons also believe, and shudder. ²⁰ But are you willing to recognize, ^(AK)you foolish fellow, that ^(AL)faith without works is useless? ^21 (AM)Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? ²² You see that ^(AN)faith was working with his works, and ^[s]as a result of the ^(AO)works, faith was ^[t]perfected; ²³ and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “^(AP)And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called ^(AQ)the friend of God. ²⁴ You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵ In the same way, was not ^(AR)Rahab the harlot also justified by works ^(AS)when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? ²⁶ For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also ^(AT)faith without works is dead.