¹⁷ If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

²⁸ But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”^(A)

Hearers and Doers

²⁴ “Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.^{(A) 25} The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock.

²⁵ But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.^(A)

¹⁷ Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it commits sin.^(A)

²⁰ Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is worthless?^{[a] 21} Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?^{(A) 22} You see that faith was active along with his works, and by works faith was brought to completion.^{(B) 23} Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,”^[b] and he was called the friend of God.^{(C) 24} You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working^[a] through love.^(A)

²⁷ I will put my spirit within you and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.^(A)

¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes,^[a] so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.

⁷ By faith Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith.^(A)

The Faith of Abraham

⁸ By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he set out, not knowing where he was going.^(B)