The Sin of Favoritism

2 My brothers, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.^{(A) 2} For example, a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor man dressed in dirty clothes also comes in. ³ If you look with favor on the man wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor man, “Stand over there,” or, “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,” ⁴ haven’t you discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world^(B) to be rich in faith^(C) and heirs^(D) of the kingdom that He has promised to those who love Him? ⁶ Yet you dishonored that poor man.^(E) Don’t the rich oppress you and drag^(F) you into the courts? ⁷ Don’t they blaspheme the noble name that was pronounced over you at your baptism?^(G)

⁸ Indeed, if you keep the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself,^(H)[a] you are doing well. ⁹ But if you show favoritism,^(I) you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all.^{(J) 11} For He who said, Do not commit adultery,^[b] also said, Do not murder.^(K)[c] So if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you are a lawbreaker.

¹² Speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of freedom.^{(L) 13} For judgment is without mercy to the one who hasn’t shown mercy.^(M) Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith and Works

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can his faith^[d] save him?

¹⁵ If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?^{(N) 17} In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.”^[e] Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith from my works.^{[f](O) 19} You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe—and they shudder.^(P)

²⁰ Foolish man! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? ²¹ Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? ²² You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was perfected.^{(Q) 23} So the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness,^(R)[g] and he was called God’s friend.^{(S) 24} You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵ And in the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by a different route?^{(T) 26} For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.