James 2:1-26 CSB

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