New Testament · Letters

James chapter 2

My , as people who in our Master Jesus, , don’t .Imagine someone walks into your wearing and expensive clothes, and then a poor person comes in wearing worn-out clothes.If you pay special attention to the one wearing expensive clothes and say, “Here, take this great seat,” but tell the poor person, “Stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor by my feet” —haven’t you created divisions among yourselves and become ?Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the people the world considers poor to be and to inherit the he promised to those who love him?But you’ve the poor person. Aren’t the rich the ones who oppress you? Aren’t they the ones who drag you into court?Aren’t they the ones who slander the ?If you really live out the found in Scripture — “ the same way you love yourself” — you’re doing the right thing.But if you play favorites, you’re , and it exposes you as someone who violates it.Because whoever keeps the whole law but on just one point has become guilty of breaking all of it.The same God who said, “Don’t commit adultery,” also said, “Don’t murder.” So even if you don’t commit adultery but you do murder, you’ve still broken the law.So speak and act like people who are going to be evaluated by the .Because judgment will be merciless to anyone who hasn’t shown . But mercy judgment every time.What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have but doesn’t back it up with action? Can that kind of trust them?If a brother or sister doesn’t have enough clothes or food for the day,and one of you tells them, “, stay warm and eat well,” but doesn’t give them what they actually need — what good is that?In the same way, trust by itself — if it doesn’t produce action — is .But someone will say, “You have trust and I have actions.” Fine — show me your trust without any actions, and I’ll show you my trust by what I do.You believe that ? Great — even the believe that, and they .Do you want proof, you , that trust without action is useless?Wasn’t our ancestor shown to be by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the ?You see that his trust and his actions were , and his trust was by what he did.And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham , and it was ” — and he was called .You see that a person is by what they do, not by trust alone.In the same way, wasn’t also shown to be right with God by what she did when she took in the and sent them out by a different route?Just as a body without is , trust without action is dead.