James 2

Favoritism in the Church

1 My brothers and sisters, as those who hold faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, you must not practice partiality.

2 For imagine that a man enters your assembly wearing gold rings and elegant clothing, and at the same time a poor person enters wearing worn and tattered garments.

3 If you give preferential attention to the one dressed in fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a place of honor,” while you say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,”

4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges whose reasoning is shaped by corrupt motives?

5 Listen carefully, my beloved brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor by the standards of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom He promised to those who love Him?

6 Yet you have dishonored the poor. Are not the wealthy the very ones who exploit you and drag you before the courts?

7 Are they not the ones who speak with contempt against the honorable name by which you have been called?

8 If you are truly carrying out the royal law according to Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing what is right.

9 But if you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the Law as transgressors.

10 For whoever keeps the whole Law but stumbles at a single point has become accountable for all of it.

11 For the One who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a violator of the Law.

12 Speak and act as people who are to be judged by the law that brings freedom.

13 For judgment will be without mercy toward the one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith Without Works Is Dead

14 What benefit is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not demonstrate it through works? Can such faith save him?

15 If a brother or sister is without adequate clothing and lacks daily nourishment,

16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; stay warm and eat well,” but you do not give them what their bodies need, what benefit is that?

17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it does not express itself in action, is dead.

18 But someone may object, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from works, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe this, and they shudder.

20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith without works is barren?

21 Was not Abraham our father justified or shown to be righteous by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?

22 You see that his faith was working together with his actions, and by his actions faith was brought to its intended completion.

23 In this way the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God.

24 You see that a person is justified or shown to be righteous by works and not by faith that remains alone.

25 In the same manner, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified or shown to be righteous by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.

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