^aMy fellow believers, ^bdo not practice your faith in our glorious ^cLord Jesus Christ with an attitude of ^dpartiality toward people—show no favoritism, no prejudice, no snobbery. 2 For if a man comes into your ¹meeting place ²wearing a gold ring and ^3afine clothes, and a poor man in ^bdirty clothes also comes in, 3 and you pay special attention to the one who wears the ^1afine clothes, and say to him, “You sit here in this good seat,” and you tell the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down on the floor by my footstool,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves, and become judges ^awith wrong motives? 5 Listen, ^amy beloved brothers and sisters: has not ^bGod chosen the poor of this world to be ^crich in faith and as believers to be ^dheirs of the kingdom which He ^epromised to those who love Him? 6 But you in contrast have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress and exploit you, and personally ^adrag you into the courts of law? 7 ^aDo they not blaspheme the ¹precious name of Christ by which you are called?

8 If, however, you ^aare really fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “^bYOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF that is, if you have an unselfish concern for others and do things for their benefit” you are doing well. Lev 19:18 9 But if you ^ashow partiality prejudice, favoritism, you are committing sin and are convicted by the Law as offenders. 10 For whoever keeps the whole Law but ^astumbles in one point, he has become ^bguilty of breaking all of it. 11 For He who said, “^aDO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY,” also said, “^bDO NOT MURDER.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you have become ¹guilty of transgressing the entire Law. Ex 20:13, 14; Deut 5:17, 18 12 Speak and act consistently as people who are going to be judged by ^athe law of liberty that moral law that frees obedient Christians from the bondage of sin. 13 For ^ajudgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; but to the one who has shown mercy mercy triumphs victoriously over judgment.

14 ^aWhat is the benefit, ^bmy fellow believers, if someone claims to have faith but has no good works as evidence? Can that kind of faith save him? No, a mere claim of faith is not sufficient—genuine faith produces good works. 15 ^aIf a brother or sister is without adequate clothing and lacks enough food for each day, 16 and one of you says to them, “^aGo in peace with my blessing, keep warm and feed yourselves,” but he does not give them the necessities for the body, what good does that do? 17 So too, ^afaith, if it does not have works to back it up, is by itself dead inoperative and ineffective.

18 ^aBut someone may say, “You claim to have faith and I have good works; show me your alleged ^bfaith without the works if you can, and I will ^cshow you my faith ^dby my works that is, by what I do.” 19 You believe that ^1aGod is one; ^byou do well to believe that. ^cThe demons also believe that, and shudder and bristle in awe-filled terror—they have seen His wrath! Deut 6:4; 11:13-21; Mark 12:29 20 But are you willing to recognize, ^ayou foolish spiritually shallow person, that ^bfaith without good works is useless? 21 ^aWas our father Abraham not shown to be justified by works of obedience which expressed his faith when he offered Isaac his son on the altar as a sacrifice to God? Gen 22:1-14 22 You see that his ^afaith was working together with his works, and as a result of the ^bworks, his faith was ^ccompleted reaching its maturity when he expressed his faith through obedience. 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “^aABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND THIS faith WAS CREDITED TO HIM by God AS RIGHTEOUSNESS and AS CONFORMITY TO HIS WILL,” and he was called ^bthe friend of God. Gen 15:6; 2+@Chr 20:7; Is 41:8 24 You see that a man (believer) is justified by works and not by faith alone that is, by acts of obedience a born-again believer reveals his faith. 25 In the same way, was ^aRahab the prostitute not justified by works too, ^bwhen she received the Hebrew ¹spies as guests and protected them, and sent them away to escape by a different route? Josh 2:1-21 26 For just as the human body without the spirit is dead, so ^afaith without works of obedience is also dead.