¹² Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid.

Beware of Personal Favoritism

2 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, ^(A)the Lord of glory, with ^(B)partiality. ² For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in ^[a]fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in ^[b]filthy clothes, ³ and you ^[c]pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” ⁴ have you not ^[d]shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵ Listen, my beloved brethren: ^(C)Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be ^(D)rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom ^(E)which He promised to those who love Him? ⁶ But ^(F)you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you ^(G)and drag you into the courts?

^46 (A)For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

Do Good to Please God

6 “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. ² Therefore, ^(A)when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. ³ But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret ^(B)will Himself reward you ^[a]openly.

^32 (A)“But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. ³³ And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. ^34 (B)And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. ³⁵ But ^(C)love your enemies, ^(D)do good, and ^(E)lend, ^[a]hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and ^(F)you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. ^36 (G)Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.

⁵ “Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you ^(A)fasted and mourned in the fifth ^(B)and seventh months ^(C)during those seventy years, did you really fast ^(D)for Me—for Me? ^6 (E)When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? ⁷ Should you not have obeyed the words which the Lord proclaimed through the ^(F)former prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous, and ^(G)the ^[a]South and the Lowland were inhabited?’ ”