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The Sin of Favoritism
My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.
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For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in,
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if you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,”
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haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
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Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
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Yet you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court?
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Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?
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If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
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For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.
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For he who said, class="quote">Do not commit adultery, also said, class="quote">Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.
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Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.
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Faith and Works
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?
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If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food
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and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?
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In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
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But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.
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You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder.
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Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar?
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You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete,
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and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, class="quote">Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend.
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You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
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In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route?
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For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
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Controlling the Tongue
Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment.
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For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able also to control the whole body.
