Build Your House on the Rock

^46 (A)“Why ^(B)do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? ^47 (C)Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: ⁴⁸ he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.^{[a] 49 (D)}But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and ^(E)the ruin of that house was great.”

¹⁴ You are ^(A)my friends ^(B)if you do what I command you.

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.