FAITH WORKS

My brethren, don't claim to have the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality toward people. If someone comes to your congregation with a gold ring, and wearing nice clothes, then someone else comes in filthy clothes, and you treat the person wearing the nice clothing better, aren't you being partial in your heart and being judges of evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren, Hasn't God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to those who love him?

But you have belittled the poor. Don't rich men trouble you, and bring you before the courts? Don't they blaspheme that worthy name that you're called (Christians)? If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, you do good, but if you have prejudice (preconceived judgment or opinion), you commit sin, and the law sees you as transgressors. Whoever obeys the whole law, and yet offends (stumbles) in one point, he is guilty of all. For He (God) that said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not kill. Now if you commit no adultery, but you kill, you have become a breaker of the law.

This is an interesting thing to ponder. If anyone stumbles in one point of the law, he is guilty of all. That would make each and every one of us guilty of all. Does that mean that all criminals should be judged guilty or judged innocent by their jury of peers? Neither. Even in God's law, there were restitutions required for crimes that were committed. But to judge a person's heart, and not to forgive them, or to presume that a person shouldn't be forgiven because of the nature of their crime is not anyone's judgment to make but God's. We have a responsibility to uphold the law, not to judge.