Letters to the Churches

For judgment is without mercy to him that hath showed no mercy: mercy glorieth against judgment.

What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? can that faith save him?

If a brother or sister be naked and in lack of daily food,

and one of you say unto them, Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; and yet ye give them not the things needful to the body; what doth it profit?

Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself.

Yea, a man will say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith apart from thy works, and I by my works will show thee my faith.

Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well: the demons also believe, and shudder.

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren?

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar?

Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect;

and the scripture was fulfilled which saith, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God.

Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.

And in like manner was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

Be not manyof youteachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment.

For in many things we all stumble. If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.

Now if we put the horses’ bridles into their mouths that they may obey us, we turn about their whole body also.

Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, are yet turned about by a very small rudder, whither the impulse of the steersman willeth.

So the tongue also is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how much wood is kindled by how small a fire!

And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell.

For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind:

but the tongue can no man tame; it is a restless evil, it is full of deadly poison.

Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God:

out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter?