Favoritism Versus Love

James 2

My siblings, y’all must not show favoritism in the way y’all hold the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. For if someone comes into y’all’s gathering with a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and y’all pay special attention to one wearing fine clothes and y’all say, “You sit here in a good place,” but y’all tell the poor person, “You stand over there,” or “Sit by my footstool,” haven’t y’all discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Y’all listen, my beloved siblings. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the empire which ʜᴇ promised to those who love ʜɪᴍ? But y’all have dishonored the poor. Don’t the rich oppress y’all and personally drag y’all into court? Don’t they blaspheme the beautiful name by which y’all have been called?

However, if y’all fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”+Lev 19:18 y’all are doing right. But if y’all show favoritism, y’all are committing sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point has become guilty of all. For ʜᴇ who said, “Do not commit adultery,”+Exo 20:18 also said, “Do not commit murder.”+Exo 20:17 Now if you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So y’all must speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law of freedom. For judgment is without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy.

Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith and Good Works

What good is it, my siblings, if a person claims to have faith, but has no works? Can that faith save them? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of y’all tells them, “Y’all go in peace. Y’all be warmed and well fed,” but y’all don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? In the same way faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe—and shudder. But are you willing to learn, O foolish human, that faith apart from works is useless? Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was partnered with his works, and by works faith was made complete. So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”+Gen 15:6 and he was called the friend of God. Y’all see that a human is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.