We now come to the famous passage that is supposed by some scholars to be an attack on Paul’s doctrine of salvation by faith instead of works. James is interpreted by many to be a champion of works as against Paul’s theory of grace. It is an old controversy and is the occasion of Martin Luther’s slighting allusion to the Epistle of James as “a veritable epistle of straw.” He thought it contradicted the Epistle of Galatians, which he loved dearly as his “wife.” It is necessary, therefore, to clear the atmosphere a bit before proceeding to the exposition.

The Standpoint of James

This depends on the date of the epistle. (For the discussion of this question, see chapter I.) It is here assumed that James wrote before the Jerusalem Conference, before A.D. 50.

Paul wrote Galatians and Romans, as well as 1 and 2 Corinthians, in the heat of the Judaizing controversy, to answer the contention that circumcision was essential to the salvation of the Gentiles, that Christianity alone was not sufficient but must be supplemented by Judaism. No issue ever stirred Paul’s nature like this. It is possible that Paul may have had in mind a misuse of James 2:14-26 by the Judaizers when he wrote, knowing that James in reality agreed with him in the matter (Acts 15:14-21; Gal. 2:1-10). But James clearly is not attacking Paul or Paul’s theory of grace. He rather has in view a perversion of the Christian emphasis on the spiritual side as opposed to the ceremonial ritualism of the Pharisees.

The pendulum swings from one extreme to the other. The Jews had laid too much emphasis on religious duties (cf. James 1:26), and some of the Christians went to the extreme of thinking that no works at all were needed in the Christian life. Some of the Jews, on the other hand, had already gone so far as to consider creed alone essential. “As soon as a man has mastered the thirteen heads of the faith, firmly believing therein ... though he may have sinned in every possible way ... still he inherits eternal life.”[70] This Jewish unconcern for real piety in life is reflected in the lives of some of the Jewish Christians and is the occasion of the remarks of James.

James’s use of righteousness or justification is in the sense of actual goodness as Jesus uses it in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 6:1) and of sanctification as Paul has it in Romans 6 to 8. It is not the “imputed righteousness” of Paul in Romans 3 and 4. James has a practical purpose, not a theological one. He is not discussing the question as to how Abraham was set right with God, how faith was reckoned as righteousness, the point seized on by Paul in the verse. James quotes the whole verse (Gen. 15:6), as Paul does, but he is concerned with it as proof that when put to the test, Abraham lived up to his faith in that he actually “offered up Isaac his son upon the altar” (James 2:21). It is the deed as proof of faith that James emphasizes, though both points are in the narrative.

James looks upon works as proof of faith, not as means of salvation. John the Baptist had demanded “fruits worthy of repentance” (Luke 3:8). Jesus had said, “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matt. 7:20). Paul will discuss death to sin on the part of the believer (Rom. 6:1-11). Peter will show how the life will make the calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10). The whole Epistle to the Hebrews is a clarion call to hold fast the confession of faith to the end. John will insist that those who say they are in the light do not walk in darkness (1 John 1:6; 2:9). Certainly then, James is in harmony with the full drift of the gospel message in his insistence on works as proof of the new life.

Paul, in his contrast between faith and works, has in mind the Jewish doctrine of works as means of salvation. See 2 Esdras 9:7 f.: “Whoever shall be able to escape either by his works or by his faith shall see my salvation.” And even here “by faith” does not mean what Paul has in mind, saving trust, but rather creed. The Pharisees taught the value of works of supererogation, the “merit” of the fathers, in particular, the merit of Abraham, whose faith and works were a storehouse for the Jews. “We have Abraham to our father.” That was enough. So the Roman Catholics hold that the saints may help us out of purgatory if we pay enough for their intercession. Prayer itself becomes an opus operatum, a credit in the balance sheet with God. Most Jews held works alone to be the means of salvation. The point was keenly discussed in the Jewish schools in Jerusalem and Alexandria.

As to faith, in this passage he is thinking of mere intellectual assent to the unity of God or other theological tenets. This was the use of “faith” by many of the Jews. After some of them became Christians, they got no further. It is this idle and empty faith that James is condemning. James does have the other sense of trust for the word, as in 2:1, “faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,” the sense in which Paul uses the term when he contrasts it with works (Rom. 3:20-30). It is quite important to note this distinction.

The antithesis in James is not, in reality, between faith and works but between live faith and dead faith, the two uses of the term just mentioned. In verse 18 the point is made absolutely clear. It is not personal trust in Christ that James ridicules but an empty theological tenet that does not stand the test of actual life. So then, James and Paul go off at tangents when the same words occur, for they are talking about different things.

Not Pious Pretense (2:14-17)

Once more James corrects a possible misapprehension. He properly places mercy above justice, but no one need think for a moment that good deeds do not matter. God is full of mercy, but there is a limit even with God. He demands some performance, not mere profession. “What doth it profit?” James pointedly asks. Cui bono? What is the use? What good is it for a man to say he has faith who has no works to prove his faith? How can men know that he has any faith? The mere assertion is all that men have at first. In the beginning the claim to faith is accepted, but the life must confirm the claim if men are to continue to believe it. God can read the heart, but even God demands that the life show the change of heart. The life must give expression to what the heart has felt.

James asks again: “Can that faith[71] save him?” He does not scoff at faith but at such hollow “faith” as this. James here speaks for the practical man of the present day who wishes to see some real difference in the life of a man who becomes a Christian. It is an old demand, as we see in 1 John 1 and 2. There is no escape from this appeal to life, nor ought there to be. Men are judged by their conduct in business during the week as much as by their attendance at church on Sunday. James does not say that a Christian has no faults and never sins or is a hypocrite if he sins once. He does say that he should have some faith.

His illustration in verses 15 and 16 is very forcible and shows that he was probably a striking and popular preacher (Oesterley). It is a problem that is constantly presented to our modern Christians and churches. A brother or sister is in need of food and clothing. They are out of work because of the economic conditions beyond their control. They are not professional beggars. One may pause to admit the serious difficulty of knowing how to render real assistance to those who come to our doors for help. The modern social workers tell us not to give money and clothing but to investigate the case or to have the charity organization or some of the rescue workers to do it for us. The great number of tramps and professional beggars with false stories tends to harden our hearts to the many cases of real need all about us. Some of these are too proud to make their real condition known and actually starve to death or perish from disease and cold.

James here assumes that the case is one of real need that deserves sympathy and help. The man who prides himself upon the correctness of his professional creed and pious standing bestows kind words of sympathy and nothing else, sending the suffering brother or sister, “ill-clad and short of daily food” (Moffatt), out into the bitter cold and shutting the door with a sense of satisfaction after such pious platitudes as, “Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled.” He calls his cheap words Christian sympathy. It is enough to make demons laugh. The irony of James is keen. “The things needful to the body,” the ordinary necessities of life, now become rare luxuries to the poor brother or sister. So James repeats his query: “What doth it profit?”

It is pertinent per contra to quote Paul on the necessity of love even in beneficence: “And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Cor. 13:3). What, indeed! One recalls the compassion of Jesus for the hungry multitudes whom he fed. His heart was not hardened. He did not ask them to be satisfied with honeyed words and the aroma of dinner. The pious pretenders actually think that the needy should be grateful for kind advice when sent away without a mouthful to eat. James applies his illustration to the point discussed (v. 17). Mere professional faith that talks and does not “is dead in itself.” There is no life in it, no reality. It is dead on the inside and is a mere empty shell of pious pretense. There are people who today turn to our churches for help in the hour of need and get only empty words. It will be in vain then to speak about the grace of God.

Not Mere Intellectual Assent (2:18-19)

It is extremely difficult to follow the thought of James in verse 18. He is usually wonderfully perspicuous, but here we are in doubt as to the punctuation and the reference in “a man.” Some scholars think that it is a delicate way that James has of referring to himself, but then James is emphasizing works, not mere faith.

Is the sentence a question or an assertion? Shall we say “but” or “yea”? Hort has shown a way out that is partly followed by Moffatt. Take the “man” as an objector, but let his objection cover only the first sentence, the point being to challenge the faith of James, since he has put such accent on works. “Thou, James, hast thou faith? I also (as well as thou) have works.” The objector thus claims to have both faith and works but implies that James has only works and no faith.

The rest of the verse is then the reply of James to the objector.[72] James bursts in with the answer to the challenge and rests his claim to faith on works as proof. “Show me thy faith apart from thy works, and I by my works will show thee my faith.” Here James pits over against each other the two sorts of faith—the true faith which James claims to possess and which is proved by works and the false faith which is mere profession and entirely apart from works. The antithesis is complete. The dispute turns on how one knows that he has faith. James rests his case on his works and in turn challenges the objector to prove his faith apart from works.

Now James is ready to drive the point home. He proceeds to show that such an empty faith as his objector has is mere intellectual assent to propositions and is not saving trust that bears fruit in the life. “Thou believest that God is one.” This is one of the statements of the unity of God. The usual formula occurs in Deuteronomy 6:4 and in Mark 12:29 (“The Lord our God, the Lord is one”). The recitation of this phrase was not merely the orthodox creed but was supposed to have saving efficacy (cf. the Moslem repetition of “Allah”). From the time of the exile the repetition of the Shema (Deut. 6:4 ff.) each morning and evening was the duty of every pious Israelite. “Whoever reads the Shema upon his couch is as one that defends himself with a two-edged sword” (Meg. 3a). “They cool the flames of Gehinnom for him who reads the Shema” (Ber. 15b). Oesterley (in loco) adds that “the very parchment on which the Shema is written is efficacious in keeping demons at a distance.”

These statements will help us to understand the atmosphere from which James draws his illustration. And yet James does not ridicule this mental assent to the oneness of God. “Thou doest well.” Orthodoxy is better than heresy. Orthodoxy is “thinking straight,” and that is what we all need to do. Every man is right in his own eyes, and the rest are a bit “off.” But good as monotheism is, it is not enough (cf. Mohammedanism again).