Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

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2 My brothers and sisters, as you practice the faith of our Lord Jesus, the anointed King of glory, you must do so without favoritism. ² What I mean is this: if someone comes into your assembly wearing gold rings, all dressed up, and a poor person comes in wearing shabby clothes, ³ you cast your eyes over the person wearing fine clothes and say, “Please! Have a seat up here!” but then you turn to the poor person and say, “Stand there!” or, “Get down there by my footstool!” ⁴ When you do this, are you not discriminating among yourselves? Are you not turning into judges with evil thoughts? ⁵ Listen, my dear brothers and sisters. Isn’t it the case that God has chosen the poor (as the world sees it) to be rich in faith, and to inherit the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor man. After all, who are the rich? The rich are the ones who lord it over you and drag you into court, aren’t they? ⁷ The rich are the ones who blaspheme the wonderful name which has been pronounced over you, aren’t they?

⁸ Supposing, however, you keep the royal law, as it is written, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”; if you do this, you will do well. ⁹ But if you show favoritism, you are committing sin, and you will be convicted by the law as a lawbreaker. ¹⁰ Anyone who keeps the whole law, you see, but fails in one point, has become guilty of all of it. ¹¹ For the one who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” So if you do not commit adultery, but do murder, you have become a lawbreaker. ¹² Speak and act in such a way as people who are going to be judged by the law of freedom. ¹³ Judgment is without mercy, you see, for those who have shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith and works

¹⁴ What use is it, my dear family, if someone says they have faith when they don’t have works? Can faith save such a person? ¹⁵ Supposing a brother or sister is without clothing, and is short even of daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; be warm, be full!”—but doesn’t give them what their bodies need—what use is that? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith, all by itself and without works, is dead.

¹⁸ But supposing someone says, “Well: you have faith, and I have works.” All right: show me your faith—but without doing any works; and then I will show you my faith, and I’ll do it by my works! ¹⁹ You believe that “God is one”? Well and good! The demons believe that, too, and they tremble! ²⁰ Do you want to know, you stupid person, that faith without works is lifeless? ²¹ Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by his works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You can see from this that faith was working together with the works, and the faith reached its fulfillment through the works. ²³ That is how the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called “God’s friend.” ²⁴ So you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵ In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she gave shelter to the spies and sent them off by another road? ²⁶ Just as the body without the spirit is dead, you see, so faith without works is dead.

Taming the tongue

3 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters; you know that we will be judged more severely. ² All of us make many mistakes, after all. If anyone makes no mistakes in what they say, such a person is a fully complete human being, capable of keeping firm control over the whole body as well. ³ We put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, and then we can direct their whole bodies. ⁴ Consider, too, the case of large ships; it takes strong winds to blow them along, but one small rudder will turn them whichever way the helmsman desires and decides. ⁵ In the same way, the tongue is a little member but boasts great things. See how small a fire it takes to set a large forest ablaze! ⁶ And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is a world of injustice, with its place established right there among our members. It defiles the whole body; it sets the wheel of nature ablaze, and is itself set ablaze by hell. ⁷ Every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, you see, can be tamed, and has been tamed, by humans. ⁸ But no single human is able to tame the tongue. It is an irrepressible evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ By it we bless the Lord and father; and by it we curse humans who are made in God’s likeness! ¹⁰ Blessing and curses come out of the same mouth! My dear family, it isn’t right that it should be like that. ¹¹ Does a spring put out both sweet and bitter water from the same source? ¹² Dear friends, can a fig tree bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Nor can salt water yield fresh.

True and false wisdom

¹³ Who is wise and discerning among you? Such a person should, by their upright behavior, display their works in the humility of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter jealousy and contention in your hearts, don’t boast, and tell lies against the truth. ¹⁵ This isn’t the wisdom that comes from above. It is earthly, merely human, coming from the world of demons. ¹⁶ For where there is jealousy and contention, there you will get unruly behavior and every kind of evil practice. ¹⁷ But the wisdom that comes from above is first holy, then peaceful, gentle, compliant, filled with mercy and good fruits, unbiased, sincere. ¹⁸ And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.