²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.

²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like ^(A)a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Faith Without Works Is Dead

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith ^(A)but does not have works? Can that faith save him? ^15 (B)If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ^16 (C)and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good^[a] is that? ¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith ^(D)apart from your works, and I will show you my faith ^(E)by my works. ^19 (F)You believe that God is one; you do well. Even ^(G)the demons believe—and shudder! ²⁰ Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? ^21 (H)Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see that ^(I)faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed ^(J)by his works; ²³ and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ^(K)“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a ^(L)friend of God. ²⁴ You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵ And in the same way was not also ^(M)Rahab the prostitute justified by works ^(N)when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? ²⁶ For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

^31 (A)And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for ^(B)with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain. ³² And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and ^(C)plays^[a] well on an instrument, for ^(D)they hear what you say, but they will not do it.

^47 (A)Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like:

¹⁶ “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, ^(A)we will not listen to you.

⁷ And the scribes and the Pharisees ^(A)watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, ^(B)so that they might find a reason to accuse him.