Read the Bible

¹ My brothers, don't hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, [the Lord] of glory, with respect of persons.² For if there comes into your synagogue a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, and there comes in also a poor man in vile clothing;³ and you have regard to him that wears the fine clothing, and say, You sit here in a good place; and you say to the poor man, You stand there, or sit under my footstool;⁴ Don't you make distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers; did not God choose those that are poor as to the world [to be] rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those that love him?⁶ But you have dishonored the poor man. Don't the rich oppress you, and themselves drag you into court?⁷ Don't they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?

⁸ Nevertheless if you fulfill the royal law, according to the scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well:⁹ but if you have respect of persons, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.¹⁰ For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one [point], he has become guilty of all.¹¹ For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if you do not commit adultery, but kill, you have become a transgressor of the law.¹² So speak, and so do, as men that are to be judged by a law of liberty.¹³ For judgment [is] without mercy to him that has shown no mercy: mercy glories against judgment.

¹⁴ What does it profit, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but doesn't have works? can that faith save him?¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food,¹⁶ and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled; and yet you don't give them the things needful to the body; what does it profit?¹⁷ Even so faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead in itself.¹⁸ Yes, a man will say, You have faith, and I have works: show me your faith apart from [your] works, and I by my works will show you [my] faith.¹⁹ You believe that there is [only] one God; you do well: the demons also believe, and shudder.²⁰ But do you want to know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren?²¹ Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?²² You see that faith was working with his works, and by works was faith made perfect;²³ and the scripture was fulfilled which says, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God.²⁴ You see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.²⁵ And in like manner wasn't also Rahab the prostitute justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?²⁶ For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.