1 My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with [an attitude of] personal favoritism.
2 For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes,
3 and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, |You sit here in a good place,| and you say to the poor man, |You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,|
4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?
5 Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world [to be] rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?
7 Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?
8 If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, |YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF,| you are doing well.
9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin [and] are convicted by the law as transgressors.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one [point], he has become guilty of all.
11 For He who said, |DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY,| also said, |DO NOT COMMIT MURDER.| Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by [the] law of liberty.
13 For judgment [will be] merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, |Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,| and yet you do not give them what is necessary for [their] body, what use is that?
17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, [being] by itself.
