Book of Common Prayer

¹⁴ My brothers, perhaps a man says, `I believe.' What good is that if he does not do anything? Can just believing save him?

¹⁵ Perhaps a brother or a sister needs clothes and has no food.

¹⁶ Perhaps one of you says to them, `God bless you. Be warm. Eat all you want.' But what good is that if you do not give them what they need for their bodies?

¹⁷ Believing is like that. If it does not do anything it is no good. Belief by itself is dead.

¹⁸ In that case someone may say, `You believe. And I do good things. Try to show me that you believe without doing any acts of kindness. I will show you that I believe by doing acts of kindness.'

¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. That is right. But even the bad spirits believe that. And they shake with fear.

²⁰ You are foolish! Believing is no good if it does not do anything good. Do you want to know that for sure?

²¹ Look at Abraham. God called our father Abraham a good man. This was because he gave his son Isaac to God on the holy table for a sacrifice.

²² You can see he believed. His faith and the things he did worked together. His believing was made all right because he did something.

²³ The words of the holy writings came true. They say, `Abraham believed God. And he was called a good man because of it.' In another place he was called `God's friend.'

²⁴ You see, a man is a good man because of the things he does, and not just because he believes.

²⁵ Rahab was a bad woman. But in the same way God called her a good woman because of something she did. She took the men into her house and then let them go out another way.

²⁶ A body is dead if it does not breathe. In the same way, believing is dead if it does not do anything good.

¹⁹ `There was a rich man who dressed and lived like a king every day.

²⁰ A poor man named Lazarus was put at his door. He had many sores on his body.

²¹ He wanted to eat the pieces of food that fell from the rich man's table. Dogs came and licked his sores.

²² The poor man died. Angels carried him to be with Abraham. `The rich man also died and was buried.

²³ He was in great pain in the world of dead people. He looked up and saw Abraham far away. With him was Lazarus.

²⁴ He called out, "Father Abraham, help me! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in some water and cool my tongue. This fire is very hot for me."

²⁵ `But Abraham said to him, "Son, remember this. You had a good time when you were living. Lazarus had a bad time when he was living. But now he is happy here and you are in pain.

²⁶ But that is not all. A wide hole is between you and us. No one can go from here to you if he wanted to. And no one can come from where you are to us."

²⁷ `The rich man said, "Then, father, I beg you, send Lazarus to my father's house.

²⁸ I have five brothers there. Tell him to talk to them so that they will not come to this place where there is pain."

²⁹ `But Abraham said, "They have Moses and the Prophets. They can listen to them."

³⁰ `He answered, "No, father Abraham! But if a man who had died went to them, they would stop their wrong ways."

³¹ `Abraham said, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, then they will not believe, even if a man were raised from death." '