James 2:14

James 2:14-17 . What doth it profit — From James 1:22 , the apostle has been enforcing Christian practice; he now applies to those who neglected this under the pretence of faith. St. Paul had taught, that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law. This some began already to wrest to their own destruction. Wherefore St. James, purposely repeating ( James 2:21-25 ) the same phrases, testimonies, and examples, which St. Paul had used, ( Romans 4:3 ; Hebrews 11:17-31 ,) refutes, not the doctrine of St. Paul, but the error of those who abused it. There is, therefore, no contradiction between the apostles: they both delivered the truth of God, but in a different manner, as having to do with different kinds of men. On another occasion St. James himself pleaded the cause of faith, Acts 15:13-21 . And St. Paul himself strenuously pleads for works, particularly in his latter epistles. This verse is a summary of what follows. What doth it profit — Of what advantage is it to him, though, or if, a man say he hath faith — It is not if he have faith, but if he say he hath it. Here, therefore, true, living faith is meant. But in other parts of the argument the apostle speaks of a dead imaginary faith. He does not therefore teach that true faith can, but that it cannot subsist without works. Nor does he oppose faith to works, but an empty name or profession of faith to real faith working by love. Can that faith, which is without works, save him? Surely not.

It can no more save him than it can profit his neighbour. For if a brother or sister be naked, &c. — Destitute of food and clothing; and one of you — Who calls himself a Christian, say to them, We sincerely pity your case, and feel the tender emotions of that love which our relation to each other requires; depart therefore, in peace — Whithersoever ye are going; be ye warmed and filled — Be clothed and fed by some humane person: but notwithstanding all these kind speeches, ye give them not — Either food or raiment, or any money to purchase the things necessary for the body; what doth it profit? — What is the advantage of being addressed with such hypocritical professions of love? Will such speeches feed and clothe the poor and destitute? Will they not rather seem a cruel mockery than a real kindness? Even so faith — A belief of the gospel, and of the great truths contained in it, how zealously soever it may be professed, and how orthodox soever those articles are to which an assent is given; if it have not works — If it do not produce love to God and all mankind, and obedience to his will, yea, the various fruits of righteousness; if it do not work by love, it is but a dead, empty notion, of no more profit to him that has it than bidding the naked be clothed is to him. It can neither convey spiritual life to the soul here, (which all true faith does,) nor entitle any one to eternal life hereafter.

James FAITH WITHOUT WORKS Jam 2:14-23 . JAMES thrice reiterates his point in this passage, and each repetition closes a branch of his argument. In verse 17 he draws the inference from his illustration of a worthy sympathy which does nothing; in verse 20 he deduces the same conclusion from the speech put into the mouth of an imaginary speaker; in verse 24 he draws it from the life of Abraham. We shall best get hold of the scope of these verse, by taking them three parts separately. I. Now, most misconceptions of a writer’s meaning are due to imperfect definition of terms. James was no metaphysician, and he does not stop to put precisely what he means by’ faith.’ Clearly he meant by it the full evangelical meaning of trust when he used it in the earlier part of the letter { Jam 1:3 ; Jam 1:6 ; Jam 2:1-5 }. As clearly he here means a mere intellectual belief of religious truth, a barren orthodoxy. If that undeniable explanation of his terminology is kept steadily in view, much of the difficulty which has been found in bringing his teaching into harmony with Paul’s melts away at once. There is a distinct difference of tone and point of view between the two, but they entirely agree in the worthlessness of such a ‘faith,’ if faith it can be called. Probably Paul would not have called it so, but James accepts the ‘saying’ of the man whom he is confuting, and consents to call his purely intellectual-belief faith.

And then he crushes it to atoms as hollow and worthless, in which process Paul would gladly have lent a hand. We may observe that verse 14 begins with supposing the case of a mere lip ‘faith,’ while verse 17 widens its conclusion to include not only that, but any ‘faith,’ however real, which does not lead to works. The logic of the passage would, perhaps, hang better together if verse 14 had run ‘if a man have faith’; but there is keen irony as well as truth in the suggestion that a faith which has no deeds often has abundant talk. The people who least live their creeds are not seldom the people who shout loudest about them. The parslysis which affects the arms does not, in these cases, interfere with the tongue. James had seen plenty of that kind of faith, both among Pharisees and Jewish Christians, and he had a holy horror of loose tongues { Jam 3:2-12 }. That kind of faith is not extinct yet, and we need to urge James’s question quite as much as he did: ‘Can that faith save?’ Observe the emphasis on ‘ that’ which the Revised Version rightly gives. The homely illustration of the very tender sympathy which gushes inwards, and does nothing to clothe naked backs or fill empty stomachs, perhaps has a sting in it, Possibly the very orthodox Jewish Christians with whom James is contending were less willing to help poor brethren than were the Gentile Christians. But, in any case, there is no denying the force of the parallel.

{8} What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? (8) The fifth place which follows very well with the former treatise, concerning a true and living faith. The proposition of the place is this: Faith which does not bring forth works is not that faith by means of which we are justified, but an false image of that faith, or else this: they who do not show the effects of faith are not justified by faith.