1 It is without showing partiality, my brothers and sisters, that you are to live out your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus the Messiah. 2 Suppose that there comes into your synagogue, for example, a man wearing gold rings and fine clothes, and also a poor person dressed in rags. 3 If ᵖyou show special respect to the man who is wearing the fine clothes and say, “ˢYou sit here in this honorable seat,” while to the poor person you say, “ˢYou stand over there,” or, “Sit here on the floor by my feet,” 4 you have wavered in your hearts and shown yourselves to be judges with evil motives, have you not? 5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: God himself has chosen those who are poor and afflicted in the eyes of the world to become rich in faith and to be heirs of the Kingdom that he promised to those who remain loyal to him, has he not? 6 You, however, dishonor the poor. It is the rich who use their power to oppress you, is it not? They are the ones who are always dragging you into court, are they not? 7 It is they who profane that honorable name, is it not, which was pronounced over you to designate you as belonging to him? 8 If, on the one hand, ᵖyou are obeying the royal command,+ laid down in the Scripture, “ˢYou are to love your neighbor as yourself,”+ ᵖyou are doing what is right. 9 If, however, on the other hand, you show partiality, you are doing something that is flagrantly sinful, and as a result are convicted by Torah+ as offenders guilty of disregarding God’s commandments. 10 If someone obeys the Torah in its entirety, you see, and yet falters in just one respect, he has sinned against all the commandments. 11 The one who gave the command, “ˢYou must not commit adultery,”+ you see, also said, “ˢYou must not murder.”+ Now let’s suppose that ˢyou don’t commit adultery, but that you do commit murder. Even though ˢyou haven’t committed adultery, the sin you have committed is against the same God whose righteous will is expressed in both prohibitions, and in the rest of the Torah as well. 12 This is how you are to speak and act: Like people whose own judgment is to be decided by the Torah that sets sinners free. 13 The ruling, you see, will be merciless for the person who refused to show mercy. Mercy triumphs over condemnation.

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds to prove it? Can this kind of faith save him? Of course not! 15 Suppose a brother or sister is poorly clothed, for example, and in need of daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and well fed,” but ᵖyou don’t do anything to help them with the basic necessities of life, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it isn’t accompanied by good deeds, is dead. 18 But someone will object, “ˢYou have faith, whereas I myself have deeds.” To this I reply, “Try to prove ˢyour faith to me without deeds. You can’t! I, however, to ˢyou, will prove by my deeds that I really do have faith. 19 ˢYou believe that God is one. Excellent! Even the demons themselves believe that, and tremble with fear. 20 You foolish man! Would you like evidence that faith without deeds doesn’t do a thing? 21 What about Abraham, our ancestor? It was by deeds that he was held to be righteous, was it not, when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 Can’t ˢyou see that his faith was at work with his deeds pushing them along, and that by his deeds his faith was made complete? 23 And so the Scripture was fulfilled, which says, ‘Abraham placed his faith in God, and it was put down on record for him as righteousness.’+ And he was called God’s friend.” 24 ᵖYou must understand, then, that it is by deeds, and not by faith alone, that a person is held to be righteous. 25 Such is how it was, too, with Rahab the prostitute. It was by deeds that she was held to be righteous, was it not, when she gave lodging to the spies and helped them escape, then, by a different route? 26 Just as the body without breath, you see, is itself dead, likewise dead is faith without works.