James 2: The Seat You Offer

Two visitors arrive: one in fine clothing, one poor. The congregation seats the first well and tells the second to stand.

James does not call this rudeness. He calls it becoming judges with evil thoughts, which is much stronger and harder to explain away.

Then the famous argument that faith without works is dead. Note what he is not saying. He is not saying works earn anything. He is saying a faith that changes where a poor visitor sits is a different thing from a faith that does not.