Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

The Sin of Favoritism

2 My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.^{(A) 2} 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, ³ 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,” ⁴ haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: 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 have dishonored the poor.^(E) Don’t the rich oppress you and drag^(F) you into court? ⁷ Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?^(G)

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

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

Faith and Works

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith 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, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?^{(N) 17} In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.”^[d] Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.^{(O) 19} You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder.^(P)

²⁰ Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? ²¹ Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar? ²² You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete,^{(Q) 23} and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,^[e](R) and he was called God’s friend.^{(S) 24} You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵ 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?^{(T) 26} For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

Controlling the Tongue

3 Not many should become teachers, my brothers,^[f] because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment.^{(U) 2} For we all stumble in many ways.^(V) If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able also to control the whole body.^{(W) 3} Now if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us,^(X) we direct their whole bodies. ⁴ And consider ships: Though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. ⁵ So too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things.^(Y) Consider how a small fire sets ablaze a large forest. ⁶ And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed^[g] among our members. It stains the whole body,^(Z) sets the course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. ⁷ Every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish is tamed and has been tamed by humankind, ⁸ but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.^{(AA) 9} With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness.^{(AB) 10} Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. ¹¹ Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? ¹² Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.

The Wisdom from Above

¹³ Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom.^{(AC) 14} But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth.^{(AD) 15} Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.^{(AE) 16} For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense.^{(AF) 18} And the fruit of righteousness^(AG) is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.