1 MY brethren, do not hold the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with partiality for persons.
2 For if there comes into your assembly a man with gold rings and in fine clothes, and there comes in a poor man in soiled clothes,
3 and you look up to the man who is wearing the fine clothes and say, "Take this good seat," and say to the poor man, "Stand there," or "Sit under my footstool,"
4 are you not making distinctions in your own minds and have you not become judges with wicked thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you before courts?
7 Do they not speak profanely of the noble name by which you are called?
8 If you keep the royal law according to the Scripture, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," you do well.
9 But if you have partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as law-breakers.
10 For he who keeps the whole law, but stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all.
11 For he who said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," said also, "Thou shalt not commit murder." If you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a law-breaker.
12 So speak and so act as those who are soon to be judged by a law of liberty.
13 For judgment is merciless to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
14 Of what use is it, my brethren, for any one to say that he has faith, if he has not works? Can faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks food for the day
16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and fed," but you do not give them what the body needs, what is the good of it?
17 Just so faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
18 But some one will say, "You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works."
19 You have faith that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons have that faith, and they shudder.
20 Are you willing to learn, O vacant-minded man, that faith without works is useless?
21 Was not Abraham, our father, pronounced righteous because of works when he laid Isaac his son on the altar?
22 You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was made perfect
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham had faith in God and it was credited to him for righteousness" and he was called "God's friend."
24 You see that a man is pronounced righteous because of works and not because of faith alone.
25 In the same way was not Rahab, the prostitute, pronounced righteous because of works when she had received the messengers and sent them out by a different road?
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.