The Sin of Partiality
1 My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ withan attitude ofpersonal favoritism.
2 For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes,
3 and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,”
4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?
5 Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this worldto berich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?
7 Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?
8 If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sinandare convicted by the law as transgressors.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in onepoint,he has become guilty of all.
11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged bythelaw of liberty.
13 For judgmentwill bemerciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
Faith and Works
14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary fortheirbody, what use is that?
17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead,beingby itself.
18 But someone maywellsay, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
19 You believe thatGod is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AndAbraham believedGod,and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.
24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
26 For just as the body withoutthespirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/80/32k/JAS/2-2487a16e5366923910c61e08cafb7f5c.mp3?version_id=100—