Bible Gateway passage: James 2:14-26, Luke 8:5-11 - English Standard Version (2024)

Faith Without Works Is Dead

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith ^(A)but does not have works? Can that faith save him? ^15(B)If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ^16(C)and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good^[a] is that? ¹⁷So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

¹⁸But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith ^(D)apart from your works, and I will show you my faith ^(E)by my works. ^19(F)You believe that God is one; you do well. Even ^(G)the demons believe—and shudder! ²⁰Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? ^21(H)Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? ²²You see that ^(I)faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed ^(J)by his works; ²³and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ^(K)“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a ^(L)friend of God. ²⁴You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵And in the same way was not also ^(M)Rahab the prostitute justified by works ^(N)when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? ²⁶For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

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^5(A)“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. ⁶And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, ^(B)it withered away, because it had no moisture. ⁷And some fell among ^(C)thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. ⁸And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded ^(D)a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, ^(E)“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The Purpose of the Parables

⁹And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, ¹⁰he said, ^(F)“To you it has been given to know ^(G)the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so ^(H)that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ ^11(I)Now the parable is this: The seed is ^(J)the word of God.

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