James Commentary

Ver 14. What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him?

What good is it? The apostle having finished his discourse on respect of persons, and the arguments he used to dissuade from it, by an easy transition passes to treat upon faith and works, showing that faith without works, particularly without works of mercy, is of no profit and advantage.

If a man says he has faith, but has no works? It is clear that the apostle is not speaking of true faith, for that, in persons capable of performing them, is not without works; it is an operative grace; it works by love and kindness, both to Christ, and to his members; but of a profession of faith, a mere historical one, by which a man, at most, assents to the truth of things, as even devils do, James 2:19 and only says he has faith, but has it not; as Simon the Sorcerer, who said he believed, but did not (Acts 8:9-24).

Can faith save him? When he says "Can faith save him?" his meaning is "Can the faith which he says he has save him?" that is, faith which is dead and produces no works; for that is the faith clearly intended here, as it appears from what follows.

This is the same as though he had said, that we do not attain salvation by a frigid and bare knowledge of God, which all confess to be most true; for salvation comes to us by faith for this reason, because it joins us to God. And this comes not in any other way than by being united to the body of Christ, so that, living through his Spirit, we are also governed by him. There is no such thing as this in the dead image of faith. There is then no wonder that James denies that salvation is connected with it.

Ver 15-16. And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you tells them, “Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;” yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it?

If a brother or sister. He takes an example from what was connected with his subject; for he had been exhorting them to exercise the duties of love. If any one, on the contrary, boasted that he was satisfied with faith without works, he compares this shadowy faith to the saying of one who bids a famished man to be filled without supplying him with the food of which he is destitute. As, then, he who sends away a poor man with words, and offers him no help, treats him with mockery, so they who devise for themselves faith without works, and without any of the duties of religion, trifle with God.

Go in peace. Be warmed and filled. As the saying of a man to the naked, "Be ye clothed and fed," when he does nothing, effects no good and is wholly useless, so is that faith that produces no works; it being as it were dead, it cannot save.

What good is it? He repeats this phrase once more to prove his point. These will neither warm them, nor fill them; or the persons themselves, that say these tidings to them: and the apostle, by this instance, shows, that as that charity which lies only in words, and in tongue, and not in deed, and in truth, is unprofitable, and good for nothing, even to them that profess it; so that faith, which a man says he has, and yet is without works, is alike unprofitable unto him.

Ver 17. Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.

It is like a lifeless carcass, a body without a soul (2:26), for as works, without faith, are dead works, so faith, without works, is a dead faith, and not like the lively hope and faith of regenerated persons: and indeed, such who have no other faith than this are dead in trespasses and sins; not that works are the life of faith, or that the life of faith lies in, and flows from works; but good works are second acts, necessarily flowing from the life of faith; to which may be added, and by these faith appears to be living, lively and active, or such who perform them appear to be true and living believers.

Ver 14. What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him?

Ver 15-16. And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you tells them, “Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;” yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it?

Ver 17. Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.

Ver 14. What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him?

Ver 15-16. And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you tells them, “Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;” yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it?

Ver 17. Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.

Ver 14. Τί τὸ ὄφελος, ἀδελφοί μου, ἐὰν πίστιν λέγῃ τις ἔχειν, ἔργα δὲ μὴ ἔχῃ; μη δύναται ἡ πίστις σῶσαι αὐτόν;

What is the profit? or What use is it? (Τί τὸ ὄφελος). Transitioning from exhortation, the apostle meets the case of those who seek to avoid practice, by sheltering themselves under the pretence of faith. He begins by asking a rhetorical question using an expression commonly found in the animated style of moral diatribes. ὄφελος is only elsewhere used in 1 Cor 15:32.

If anyone claims to have faith or If someone says they have faith (ἐὰν πίστιν λέγῃ τις ἔχειν). Many expositors place the emphasis on "says" (λέγῃ), as if the assertion was a mere pretext and the one speaking does not, in reality, possess faith. It is self-evident that James is not arguing that a faith, which one has not, cannot save him. That it is not simply said ἐὰν πίστιν τις ἔχη, is explained from his lively mode of representation, by which he introduces his opponent as appealing to his "faith" (πίστις).

It is also incorrect to emphasize the want of the article before "faith" (πίστις). The article is here wanting, as is often the case in the N. T. where the word expresses something definite in itself, particularly when it is to be brought forward according to its quality. For those whom James combats considered their faith to be whole and complete faith which was sufficient to save them. Nor were they lacking in confidence in their faith.

They indeed believed, but they did not receive Christ in themselves as a principle of a new life. The object of their faith remained to them purely external, and thus they lacked those works which spring from living faith. They believed in the way demons believe (v. 19).

But has no works (ἔργα δὲ μὴ ἔχῃ). ἔργα ("works") is entirely general, but according to the context means those works are which are proofs of living faith. Again, it is the spurious claim to faith that James here condemns. Put one way: they possess a dead faith, a demon-like faith, a non-saving faith, a mere intellectual belief. Put another way: they do not possess a real, living, saving, active, true, faith.

Can such faith save him? or Is that faith that he spoke of able to save him? (μη δύναται ἡ πίστις σῶσαι αὐτόν). Negative answer expected from μη. Effective aorist active infinitive σωσα (from σωζω). The article ἡ here refers back to the claim of faith which has no works just made, so that which is here called "faith" (πίστις), which James denies as being able to save, is again the spurious claim of faith called "dead faith" in v. 17. The force of it then is: that faith which you speak of, that which is called faith, faith in the manner the speaker claims; James' use of "wisdom" in 3:15 is another example of this. "Him" (αὐτόν) refers back to the subject "anyone" (τις), that is, to the person whom James has introduced as speaking.

It is often taught that James denies to faith its saving-power. With the previous observations, it is evident that James does not affirm generally that faith cannot save, but that the "faith" of one who remains destitute of works cannot save. The force of the second question, then, confirms and narrows the judgment contained in the first: that it profits nothing and doesn't save to have a faith that works not.

Ver 15-16. Ἐὰν δὲ ἀδελφὸς ἢ ἀδελφὴ γυμνοὶ ὑπάρχωσιν καὶ λειπόμενοι ὦσιν τῆς ἐφημέρου τροφῆς, εἴπῃ δέ τις αὐτοῖς ἐξ ὑμῶν, Ὑπάγετε ἐν εἰρήνῃ, θερμαίνεσθε καὶ χορτάζεσθε, μὴ δῶτε δὲ αὐτοῖς τὰ ἐπιτήδεια τοῦ σώματος, τί τὸ ὄφελος;

Ver 17. Οὕτως καὶ ἡ πίστις, ἐὰν μὴ ἔργα ἔχῃ, νεκρά ἐστιν καθ' ἑαυτήν.