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.y 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 worlda to be rich in faithb and heirsc of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 Yet you have dishonored the poor.d Don’t the rich oppress you and drage you into court? 7 Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?f

8 Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself,C,g you are doing well. 9 If, however, you show favoritism,h 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.i 11 For he who said, Do not commit adultery,D also said, Do not murder.E,j 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.k 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy.l 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?m 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.”* Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.n 19 You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder.o

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,p 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,A,q and he was called God’s friend.r 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?s 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,B because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment.t 2 For we all stumble in many ways.u If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able also to control the whole body.v 3 Now if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us,w 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.x Consider how a small fire sets ablaze a large forest. 6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placedC among our members. It stains the whole body,y 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.z 9 With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness.aa 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.ab 14 But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth.ac 15 Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.ad 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.a 18 And the fruit of righteousnessb is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.

PROUD OR HUMBLE

4 What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passionsc that wage war within you?D 2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war.A You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.d

4 You adulterous people!B Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.e 5 Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?C,f

6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says:

God resists the proud

but gives grace to the humble.D,g

7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.h 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.i 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.j 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believerE defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.k 12 There is one lawgiver and judgeF who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?l

OUR WILL AND GOD’S WILL

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”m 14 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.n

15 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.o 17 So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.p