44 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
44 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
The Sin of Favoritism
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# Chapter 2
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1. My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.
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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,
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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,"
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4. haven't you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
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5. Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn't God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
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6. Yet you have dishonored the poor. Don't the rich oppress you and drag you into court?
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7. Don't they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?
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8. Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, <b class="quote">Love your neighbor as yourself**, you are doing well.
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9. If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
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10. For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.
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11. For he who said, <b class="quote">Do not commit adultery*, also said, <b class="quote">Do not murder.* So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.
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12. Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.
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13. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
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Faith and Works
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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?
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15. If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food
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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?
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17. In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
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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.
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19. You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe--and they shudder.
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20. Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?
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21. Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar?
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22. You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete,
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23. and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, <b class="quote">Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness**, and he was called God's friend.
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24. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
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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?
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26. For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
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