James 2:1-13 - Partiality Forbidden

¹ My brothers, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with partiality. ² For if someone enters into your assembly in fine clothing with a gold ring on his finger, and a poor person in filthy clothing also enters, ³ and you look favorably on the one wearing the fine clothing and you say, "Be seated here in a good place," and to the poor person you say, "You stand or be seated there by my footstool," ⁴ have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers! Did not God choose the poor of the world [to be] rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor! Are not the rich exploiting you and they themselves dragging you into the courts? ⁷ Do they themselves not blaspheme the good name {of the one to whom you belong}?

⁸ However, if you carry out the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well. ⁹ But if you show partiality, you commit sin, [and thus] are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one [point only] has become guilty of all [of it]. ¹¹ For the one who said "Do not commit adultery" also said "Do not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

¹² Thus speak and thus act as those who are going to be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³ For judgment [is] merciless to the one who has not practiced mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.