Letters to the Churches

for the judgment without kindness is to him not having done kindness, and exult doth kindness over judgment.

What is the profit, my brethren, if faith, any one may speak of having, and works he may not have? is that faith able to save him?

and if a brother or sister may be naked, and may be destitute of the daily food,

and any one of you may say to them, `Depart ye in peace, be warmed, and be filled,' and may not give to them the things needful for the body, what is the profit?

so also the faith, if it may not have works, is dead by itself.

But say may some one, Thou hast faith, and I have works, shew me thy faith out of thy works, and I will shew thee out of my works my faith:

thou--thou dost believe that God is one; thou dost well, and the demons believe, and they shudder!

And dost thou wish to know, O vain man, that the faith apart from the works is dead?

Abraham our father--was not he declared righteous out of works, having brought up Isaac his son upon the altar?

dost thou see that the faith was working with his works, and out of the works the faith was perfected?

and fulfilled was the Writing that is saying, `And Abraham did believe God, and it was reckoned to him--to righteousness;' and, `Friend of God' he was called.

Ye see, then, that out of works is man declared righteous, and not out of faith only;

and in like manner also Rahab the harlot--was she not out of works declared righteous, having received the messengers, and by another way having sent forth?

for as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also the faith apart from the works is dead.

Many teachers become not, my brethren, having known that greater judgment we shall receive,

for we all make many stumbles; if any one in word doth not stumble, this one is a perfect man, able to bridle also the whole body;

lo, the bits we put into the mouths of the horses for their obeying us, and their whole body we turn about;

lo, also the ships, being so great, and by fierce winds being driven, are led about by a very small helm, whithersoever the impulse of the helmsman doth counsel,

so also the tongue is a little member, and doth boast greatly; lo, a little fire how much wood it doth kindle!

and the tongue is a fire, the world of the unrighteousness, so the tongue is set in our members, which is spotting our whole body, and is setting on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by the gehenna.

For every nature, both of beasts and of fowls, both of creeping things and things of the sea, is subdued, and hath been subdued, by the human nature,

and the tongue no one of men is able to subdue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison,

with it we do bless the God and Father, and with it we do curse the men made according to the similitude of God;

out of the same mouth doth come forth blessing and cursing; it doth not need, my brethren, these things so to happen;

doth the fountain out of the same opening pour forth the sweet and the bitter?