James:2

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Seeker Overlay ON

* My brothers , you believe in our Lord , the wonderful Jesus Christ . So you must not think one man is better than another . * A man comes in to your church meeting . He has a gold ring and wears fine clothes . A poor man also comes in . He wears old clothes . * You look at the man who wears fine clothes . And you say to him , Sit here on this good chair . But you say to the poor man , Stand over there , or you say , Sit on the floor by my feet . * If you do these things , you think some people are better than others . You are wrong when you judge people this way . * Listen , my dear brothers . God has chosen people who are poor in this world . They believe very much . They will have a place in the kingdom which he has promised to give to those who love him . * But you made the poor man ashamed . Is it not the rich people who trouble you ? Are not they the ones who take you to court ? * Are not they the ones who say wrong things about the good name you have ? * The holy writings say , Love your neighbour as you love yourself . If you obey this law of your King you do well . * But if you think one man is better than another , that is wrong . The law says you are a bad person . * Anyone who obeys the law , but then breaks one of the laws , has broken all the laws . * God made the law , Do not use sex wrongly . God also made the law , Do not kill .If you do not have wrong sex , but you kill , you have broken the law . * There is a law that makes people free . It is the law of showing kindness . Always talk and live like men who will be judged by that law . * When God judges , he will not be kind to a person who has not been kind . It is better to be kind than it is to judge people . * My brothers , perhaps a man says , I believe . What good is that if he does not do anything ? Can just believing save him ? * Perhaps a brother or a sister needs clothes and has no food . * Perhaps one of you says to them , God bless you . Be warm . Eat all you want . But what good is that if you do not give them what they need for their bodies ? * Believing is like that . If it does not do anything it is no good . Belief by itself is dead . * In that case someone may say , You believe . And I do good things . Try to show me that you believe without doing any acts of kindness . I will show you that I believe by doing acts of kindness . * You believe that there is one God . That is right . But even the bad spirits believe that . And they shake with fear . * You are foolish ! Believing is no good if it does not do anything good . Do you want to know that for sure ? * Look at Abraham . God called our father Abraham a good man . This was because he gave his son Isaac to God on the holy table for a sacrifice . * You can see he believed . His faith and the things he did worked together . His believing was made all right because he did something . * The words of the holy writings came true . They say , Abraham believed God . And he was called a good man because of it . In another place he was called Gods friend . * You see , a man is a good man because of the things he does , and not just because he believes . * Rahab was a bad woman . But in the same way God called her a good woman because of something she did . She took the men into her house and then let them go out another way . * A body is dead if it does not breathe . In the same way , believing is dead if it does not do anything good .

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