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- ¶ MY brethren, do not with hypocrisy uphold the glorious faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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- For if there should enter into your synagogue a man with gold rings and costly garments, and there should also enter a poor man in soiled clothing,
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- And you should attend to the one who wears the beautiful clothing and say to him, Sit here in a good place, and say to the poor man, Stand up there, or sit here before our footstool,
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- Are you not then showing partiality and thereby giving preference to evil thoughts?
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- Hear this, my beloved brethren: Has not God chosen the poor of the world who are rich in faith to be heirs of the kingdom which God Bas promised to those who love him?
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- But you have despised the poor.
Do not rich men exalt themselves over you and drag you before the judgment seat?
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- Do not they blaspheme against that good name by which you are called?
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- ¶ If you fulfil the law of God by this, as it is written, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well;
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- But if you discriminate among men, you commit sin and you will be condemned by the law as transgressors of the law.
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- For whoever shall keep the whole law, even though he fail in but one statute, he is guilty as to the whole law.
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- For he who said, You shall not commit adultery, said also, You shall not kill.
Now if you do not commit adultery, but you kill, you have become a transgressor of the law.
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- So speak and so act as men who are to be judged by the law of liberty.
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- For a judgment without mercy will be on him who does not show mercy;
for you exalt yourselves by having mercy over judgment.
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- ¶ Though a man say he has faith, what profit is it, my brethren, if he does not have works?
Can faith save him?
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- If a brother or sister be naked and lacking of daily food,
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- And one of you says to him, Depart in peace, be warmed and be filled;
yet you do not give to him those things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?
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- Even so, by itself, faith without works is dead.
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- For a man may say, You have faith and I have works;
show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
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- You believe that there is one God;
you do well. The devils also believe, and they tremble.
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- Would you know, O weak man, that faith without works is dead?
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- Was not our father Abraham justified by works, when he raised Isaac his son upon the altar?
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- You can see how his faith helped his works, and how by works his faith was made perfect.
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- And the scripture was fulfilled which said, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness;
and he was called the Friend of God.
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- You see then how a man by works becomes righteous, and not by faith only.
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- Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she welcomed the spies and sent them out another way?
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- For as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
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