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?^{(A) 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?^{(B) 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.^{(C) 9} But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

¹² So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.^{(A) 13} For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.^(B)

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?^{(C) 15} If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food^{(D) 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.