James 2:1-9

New International Version

Favoritism Forbidden

2 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious^(A) Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.^(B) ²Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. ³If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” ⁴have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges^(C) with evil thoughts?

⁵Listen, my dear brothers and sisters:^(D) Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world^(E) to be rich in faith^(F) and to inherit the kingdom^(G) he promised those who love him?^(H) ⁶But you have dishonored the poor.^(I) Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?^(J) ⁷Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?

⁸If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”^[a]^(K) you are doing right. ⁹But if you show favoritism,^(L) you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.^(M)

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Footnotes

James 2:8 Lev. 19:18

1 Corinthians 12:12-26

New International Version

Unity and Diversity in the Body

¹²Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body,^(A) so it is with Christ.^(B) ¹³For we were all baptized^(C) by^[a] one Spirit^(D) so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free^(E)—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.^(F) ¹⁴Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.^(G)

¹⁵Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But in fact God has placed^(H) the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.^(I) ¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body.^(J)

²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²²On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

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