You must love everyone
1My friends, you believe in Jesus Christ who is full of glory. That is why you must not think that one person is more important than another person. 2If a rich man with a golden ring and beautiful clothes comes to your congregation meeting, what will you do? If a poor man with dirty clothes that are torn comes to your meeting, what will you do? 3If you think that the rich man with the beautiful clothes is more important, then you have done wrong. If you say to him: ‘Come and sit here at this good place,’ but you say to the poor man: ‘Stand back there,’ or ‘Sit here at my feet,’ 4then you think that one person is more important than the other person. Then you are like a judge who makes wrong decisions because he thinks that some people are better than others.
5My friends, I love you. Please listen to me. The people of this world don't want to be with people who are poor. You know that God has chosen the poor people to be rich. They are rich because they believe in God and He has promised that He will be the King of all the people who love Him. 6But you have humiliated the poor people and have not respected them. You know that it is the rich people who make you suffer. They are the people who take you to court. 7You also know that it is the rich people who say bad things about Christ and you have his name: You are Christians. 8The King of heaven said in his laws in the Old_Testament: ‘You must love others as you love yourself.’
If you do that, then you have done well. 9But if you think one person is more important than another person, then you have sinned and the laws say that you are wrong.
10If you do everything that all the laws of God say, but there is one law that you do not obey, then you are guilty. You are the same as a person who has broken all the laws of God. 11Because the same God who said: ‘You may not have sex with another man's wife,’ also said: ‘You may not kill someone.’
If you do not have sex with another man's wife, but you kill someone, then you are guilty of breaking the law of God.
12When you talk or do something, you must always remember that God will judge you. He will judge you with the laws that make us free. 13When God judges everyone, He will not feel sorry for those people who were not sorry for other people. God will be good to those people who were good to other people. He will not punish them.
Faith and good works
14My friends, it is not good if you say you believe in God, but you don't do what God wants. If you believe like that, then you must know that your faith will not save you. 15If another believer does not have clothes or food to eat every day, 16it does not help if you say to him: ‘God bless you. Keep warm and eat a lot of food.’
If you don't give that person what he needs, then you have done no good. 17It is the same with people who say they believe in God, but they don't do what God wants. If you believe like that, then your faith is worthless. It is dead. 18Someone said: ‘Some people believe in God and other people do what God wants.’ No, that is wrong. You can not say that you believe if you don't do what God says. But I will show you that I believe because I do what God says. 19You say you believe there is one God. That is right. The devils also believe that and they are so afraid of God that they tremble.
20Foolish man, do you want me to prove that it does not help if you say you believe in God but you don't do what He says? 21Abraham, our forefather, took his son Isaac to the altar to sacrifice him. You know that God made him righteous because he did what God wanted. 22Now you can understand what Abraham meant when he said he believed in God, because he did what God wanted. Yes, he did what God wanted and that showed that he really believed in God. 23And what is written in the Old_Testament happened: ‘Abraham believed in God and God made him righteous.’ That is why God said Abraham was his friend. 24You must understand that God makes us righteous because we do what He wants, not because we only believe in God.
25You also know that God made Rahab, the prostitute, righteous because she did what He wanted. She invited the spies to come to her home and she helped them to be safe and go away on a different road. 26A body that does not breathe is dead. It is the same with faith. It is dead if you don't do what God wants.
