My brothers and sisters, have your trust in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, without showing favoritism.
For if there comes into your synagogue a man with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothing, and there also comes in a poor man dressed in filthy clothing,
and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothing, and say, “Sit here in a good place,” but you say to the poor man, “Stand over there,” or “Sit by my feet,”
have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
My beloved brothers and sisters, listen! Didn’t God choose the poor of the world to be rich in trust and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?
But you have treated the poor man shamefully. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into the courts?
Do they not defame the good name by which you were called?
However, if you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well!
But if you show favoritism, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
For whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all of it.
For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. Now if you do not commit adultery, but commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
So speak and so act as those who are going to be judged by the law of freedom.
For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Faith Without Works Is Dead
My brothers and sisters, what does it profit if someone says he has trust but does not have works? Can that trust save him?
If a brother or sister is without clothing and lacks daily food,
and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,” but you do not give them what is necessary for the body, what does it profit?
So also trust by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have trust, and I have works.” Show me your trust without your works, and I will show you my trust by my works.
You believe that there is one God. You do well! Even the demons believe this—and tremble in fear.
But are you willing to recognize, O empty-headed person, that trust without works is useless?
Was not Abraham our father declared righteous by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
You see that his trust was working together with his works, and his trust was made complete by his works,
and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.
You see that a person is declared righteous by works, and not by trust alone.
And in the same way, was not also Rahab the prostitute declared righteous by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by a different route?
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also trust without works is dead.