How does one refuse helping a beggar on the sidewalk, but justify handing money to a priest?
James 2:1-26 TS2009 1 My brothers, do not hold the belief of our Master יהושע Messiah, the Master of esteem, with partiality. 2 For if there should come into your meeting place a man with gold rings, in a splendid robe, and there should also come in a poor one dressed in rags, 3 and you pay attention to the one wearing the splendid robe and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor one, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves, and become judges with wicked thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers: Has Elohim not chosen the poor of this world, rich in belief and heirs of the reign which He promised to those who love Him? 6 But you have shown disrespect towards the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? 7 Do they not blaspheme that good Name by which you are called? 8 If you truly accomplish the sovereign law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” Lev. 19:18 you do well, 9 but if you show partiality, you commit sin, being found guilty by the Torah as transgressors. 10 For whoever shall guard all the Torah, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” Exo. 20:14 also said, “Do not murder.” Exo. 20:13 Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of Torah. 12 So speak and so do as those who are to be judged by a Torah of freedom. 13 For the judgment is without compassion to the one who has shown no compassion. And compassion boasts over judgment. 14 My brothers, what use is it for anyone to say he has belief but does not have works? This belief is unable to save him. 15 And if a brother or sister is naked and in need of daily food, 16 but one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” but you do not give them the bodily needs, what use is it? 17 So also belief, if it does not have works, is in itself dead. 18 But someone might say, “You have belief, and I have works.” Show me your belief without your works, and I shall show you my belief by my works. 19 You believe that Elohim is one. Deu. 6:4 You do well. The demons also believe – and shudder! 20 But do you wish to know, O foolish man, that the belief without the works is dead? 21 Was not Aḇraham our father declared right by works when he offered Yitsḥaq his son on the slaughter-place? 22 Do you see that the belief was working with his works, and by the works the belief was perfected? 23 And the Scripture was filled which says, “Aḇraham believed Elohim, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness.” Gen. 15:6 And He called him, “he who loves Elohim.” Isa. 41:8; 2Ch 20:7. 24 You see, then, that a man is declared right by works, and not by belief alone. 25 In the same way, was not Raḥaḇ the whore also declared right by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so also the belief is dead without the works.
Proverbs 14:31 TS2009 He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, But he who esteems Him shows favour to the needy.
From Institute for Scripture Research
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