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²⁵For how does it benefit a man, if he were to gain the whole world, yet lose himself, or cause himself harm?

²⁰Whoever keeps step with the wise shall be wise. A friend of the foolish will become like them.

²And do not choose to be conformed to this age, but instead choose to be reformed in the newness of your mind, so that you may demonstrate what is the will of God: what is good, and what is well-pleasing, and what is perfect.

⁷Then he also told a parable, to those who were invited, noticing how they chose the first seats at the table, saying to them: ⁸“When you are invited to a wedding, do not sit down in the first place, lest perhaps someone more honored than yourself may have been invited by him. ⁹And then he who called both you and him, approaching, may say to you, ‘Give this place to him.’ And then you would begin, with shame, to take the last place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, go, sit down in the lowest place, so that, when he who invited you arrives, he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the sight of those who sit at table together with you. ¹¹For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” ¹²Then he also said to the one who had invited him: “When you prepare a lunch or dinner, do not choose to call your friends, or your brothers, or your relatives, or your wealthy neighbors, lest perhaps they might then invite you in return and repayment would made to you.

²⁶Woe to you when men will have blessed you. For these same things their fathers did to the false prophets.

¹⁰For am I now persuading men, or God? Or, am I seeking to please men? If I still were pleasing men, then I would not be a servant of Christ.

²⁵Whoever fears man will quickly fall. Whoever hopes in the Lord shall be lifted up.

¹My brothers, within the glorious faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, do not choose to show favoritism toward persons. ²For if a man has entered your assembly having a gold ring and splendid apparel, and if a poor man has also entered, in dirty clothing, ³and if you are then attentive to the one who is clothed in excellent apparel, so that you say to him, “You may sit in this good place,” but you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit below my footstool,” ⁴are you not judging within yourselves, and have you not become judges with unjust thoughts? ⁵My most beloved brothers, listen. Has not God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that God has promised to those who love him? ⁶But you have dishonored the poor. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you through power? And are not they the ones who drag you to judgment?

⁷And the Lord said to Samuel: “You should not look with favor on his face, nor on the height of his stature. For I have rejected him. Neither do I judge by the appearance of a man. For man sees those things that are apparent, but the Lord beholds the heart.”

²⁴A man amiable to society shall be more friendly than a brother.

³⁶And all the people heard it, and everything that the king did in the sight of the entire people was pleasing to them.

⁴You adulterers! Do you not know that the friendship of this world is hostile to God? Therefore, whoever has chosen to be a friend of this world has been made into an enemy of God.