Warning against Partiality

2 My brothers and sisters, do not claim the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory while showing partiality.^{(A) 2} For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, ³ and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here in a good place, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit by my footstool,”^{(B) 4} have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?^{(C) 6} But you have dishonored the poor person. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into the courts?^{(D) 7} Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

⁸ If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well.^{(E) 9} But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.^{(F) 11} For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but you murder, you have become a transgressor of^[a] the law.^{(G) 12} So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.^{(H) 13} For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.^(I)

Faith without Works Is Dead

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it?^{(J) 15} If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food^{(K) 16} and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷ So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from works, and I by my works will show you faith.^{(L) 19} You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.^{(M) 20} Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is worthless?^{[b] 21} Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?^{(N) 22} You see that faith was active along with his works, and by works faith was brought to completion.^{(O) 23} Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,”^[c] and he was called the friend of God.^{(P) 24} You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵ Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers^[d] and sent them out by another road?^{(Q) 26} For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.

Friendship with the World

4 Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? ² You want something and do not have it, so you commit murder. And you covet^[a] something and cannot obtain it, so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.^{(A) 4} Adulterers!^[b] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.^{(B) 5} Or do you suppose that the scripture speaks to no purpose? Does the spirit that God caused to dwell^[c] in us desire envy?^{(C) 6} But God gives all the more grace; therefore it says,

⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.^{(E) 8} Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.^{(F) 9} Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.^(G)

Warning against Judging Another

¹¹ Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another speaks evil against the law and judges the law, but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.^{(H) 12} There is one lawgiver and judge^[d] who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?^(I)

Boasting about Tomorrow

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.”^{(J) 14} Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.^{(K) 15} Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.”^{(L) 16} As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it commits sin.^(M)

Warning to Rich Oppressors

5 Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. ² Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten.^{(A) 3} Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure^[a] during the last days. ⁴ Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.^{(B) 5} You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.^{(C) 6} You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.

Patience in Suffering

⁷ Be patient, therefore, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.^{(D) 8} You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.^{[b](E) 9} Brothers and sisters, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors!^{(F) 10} As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹ Indeed, we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the outcome that the Lord brought about, for the Lord is compassionate and merciful.^(G)

¹² Above all, brothers and sisters, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.^[c]

The Prayer of Faith

¹³ Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.^{(H) 14} Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.^{(I) 15} The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up, and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.^{(J) 17} Elijah was a human like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.^{(K) 18} Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth yielded its harvest.^(L)

¹⁹ My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth^[d] and is brought back by another, ²⁰ you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s^[e] soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.^(M)