James 2:14-26 – A Faith That Fulfills the Law in Love
“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” – James 2:14-26 ESV
The Central Theme of Love in the Book of James
Love is a word that invokes a plethora of different ideals. In Scripture we see love clearly defined in places like 1 Corinthians 13, and vivid examples shown in places like the book of 1 John and the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Although the concept of love is sometimes discussed directly, many times throughout different texts in the Bible its effects and focus are apparent even when it is not being directly referenced.
This is similar to God’s sovereignty in the book of Esther, which is a central theme even though God’s name or involvement is never mentioned at all.
Time and time again, love’s effects are what all of God’s other attributes, including His wisdom, lead us to be perfected in. The book of James is no different. It is a book that shares God’s wisdom on how to persist in and realign ourselves with the love of God more effectively. Like all Scripture, it can be easily misunderstood if read apart from this central attribute of love being the focus; because God is love (1 John 4:8), and all Scripture points to Him (John 5:39).
How Do We Know Love Is the Focus?
How do we know that love is the anchor of this passage and that I’m not just reading love into the text? Well, James himself provides two anchor points in the first two chapters. Both sections discuss what true faith looks like and give instructions for better fulfilling the law of Christ in love.
First is James 1:1–18, which is Loving God with All Your Heart, Mind, and Soul
This section deals with our hearts and actions toward God.
James points to this truth:
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” (James 1:12 ESV)
This is exactly what Abraham did, he didn’t doubt God but stood steadfast. James summarizes his earlier teaching about doubt in trials by pointing it back to loving God through faith.
Next is James 1:19–2:13 – which discusses Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself
This section deals with our hearts and actions toward others.
“If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well.” (James 2:8 ESV)
James then summarizes holding the tongue and not showing partiality as expressions of loving your neighbor.
He later gives the example of Rahab the prostitute, a Gentile woman who believed God and loved her brothers in the faith (the spies of Israel) by protecting them above all else, giving them what they needed to survive and hiding them from Jericho’s King and his soldiers. This comes right after James addresses the sin of partiality, a sin even the apostle Peter and I’m assuming many in the Jewish community were struggling with (as seen when Peter mistreated his Gentile brothers in Christ).
Simply put:
• Abraham is a phenomenal example of loving God with all your heart, mind, and soul.
• Rahab is a perfect example of loving your neighbor as yourself.
When these two work together, we fulfill the law of Christ in Love.
James 2:14-26 – Summarizing a Faith That Works (A Faith That Loves)
This brings us to James 2:14-26, where James summarizes, challenges, and provides two examples from antiquity of a faith that works, which is a faith that loves.
“Faith Without Works Is Dead” – One of the Most Disputed Passages
This is honestly one of the most disputed passages in all of Scripture and has created centuries of internal conflict in the church. But we will see, as Colossians 3:14 declares, that love truly binds everything together in perfect harmony, and this includes the way we read the Bible. All Scripture points back to God, who is love by definition (1 John 4:8). If we read any text of the Bible apart from God’s defining love, we reach the incorrect conclusion.
I’ve seen extreme explanations of this text that are very common understandings:
• One group says works do justify us, and it is faith + works that save us (a common Catholic understanding).
• The other position is that faith alone saves us, but a true genuine faith will obey God (Lordship salvation), which can lead to confusion about what it means to obey God while we still struggle with sin.
Both of these try to reconcile the passage systematically, but both are incorrect and burdensome on the believer. They push the burden of proof of faith either directly or indirectly onto the person who professes faith.
• The Catholic understanding leaves someone wondering, “Am I working hard enough to be right with God?”
• The Lordship view leaves the believer questioning their salvation when they are not obedient to Christ perfectly. “Am I obedient enough to be saved?”
Both are common understandings, but in my opinion neither reflects the Lord’s understanding. Both positions add a heavy weight to those who profess faith.
What This Passage Is Really About
This passage is not primarily meant to be a systematic explanation of faith vs. works and their relationship to salvation. It is meant to show what a true faith looks like.
A true faith is not perfect obedience or serving in ministry. A true faith is not merely even a desire to follow the commands of Scripture, if that desire is not rooted in loving God and others by His wisdom. Many can fall into the trap of works righteousness without knowing it, when loving God and neighbor is not the focus in following the commands.
James’s Hypothetical Example
James gives a clear illustration:
“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
He sets up a hypothetical scenario. If your brother or sister in the faith is lacking daily food, and you just say “Go in peace, be warmed and filled” without giving them what they need for the body when you have the ability, what good is that?
This can apply to many things, but due to the example of Rahab that follows, I believe it has to do with things necessary for survival, things God arrays and provides, both tangible and intangible.
If your brother or sister needs loving encouragement, if they need justice because they were wronged and mistreated, if they need shelter, a ride to work, if they need a meal, and it is in your ability to give it and you do not, what type of faith is that? Do you really love them? Do you really love God?
Addressing the Critic’s Response
Then James anticipates an objection:
“But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
This is a person trying to justify themselves by their works, perhaps a keeper of ceremonial laws, like the Pharisees, who had many works but a faith that was dead. A faith that didn’t love God, and didn’t love neighbors. The Pharisees group named means “the separated ones” and they believed in salvation through separation from gentile sinners and scrupulous keeping of the traditions they had established, which in terms of elevated their own since of self, placing salvation salvation on their shoulders alone, even though inwardly they were dead and not loving.
Here are a few examples of what their faith produced to remind you.
“The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” Luke 18:11
“They answered him, ‘You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?’ And they cast him out.” John 9:34 ESV
“Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.’” Luke 7:39 ESV
And some of Christs words describing them.
“They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” Matthew 23:4 ESV
“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God.” Luke 11:42 ESV
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” Matthew 23:23 ESV
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” Matthew 23:25 ESV
“So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Matthew 23:28 ESV
That faith they had was not working through love. It was a dead faith, a faith in themselves, not in God who is Love.
Even Demons Believe
James continues the rebuke:
“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?”
He rebukes their intellectual assent. They believe God is one! For us: you believe in Jesus—good! Even the demons believe in Jesus. But you know what the demons don’t do?
Demons masquerade as angels of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). Demons do “good works”, a demonic person will donate to charity, say “love and peace,” advocate for bettering humanity, read Scripture, demand justice in a worldly way, they might even keep some moral restraints scripture requires, like abstaining from sexually immorally, or not being a drunkard. The Pharisees kept a lot of those same laws, and The devil and his demons aren’t against that surprisingly.
But you know what demons don’t do? What they are incapable of? Demons don’t love God with all their heart, mind, and soul, and they do not love the church, which is your neighbor per scripture, like themselves. (Luke 10:37) A demon would see these Christian brothers and sisters struggling for food and say, “I’ll pray for you” but do absolutely nothing to help them get what they need, because they don’t care for their neighbors. Demons don’t love according to God’s love, or love God, or anything He loves at all. But they would use scripture to justify their own moral superiority, leading to confusion and spiritual ruin. Because best type of counterfeit is the one that looks most like the original, but has no value whatsoever.
So James is saying: faith is useless apart from this faith that loves.
James’s Two Examples from Antiquity
Abraham
“Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’, and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”
Do you see how this is about loving God now? Abraham truly loved God with all his heart, mind, and soul. How do we know? Well let’s ask another question. Who else gave up their son, and for what reason?
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 ESV)
God gave up His only Son because He loved the world. Abraham was willing to give up his only son because he so loved God. There is no faith that works apart from the love of God in that individual. Even though Abraham fell short of the glory of God many times, his faith was accounted to him as righteousness, his faith that loved God, his faith that fulfilled the law of Christ.
Rahab
“And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?”
James says “in the same way.” Rahab fulfilled the law of Christ. She did not doubt Him, knowing that God was going to destroy this wicked city she lived in. She believed God, and in believing God she loved His people, her neighbors in the faith, and gave them what they needed to survive, hiding them from the soldiers. What if she told the spies that, and when the soldiers came, she ratted the spies out? Would that be a faith that believed God? What about a faith that loved her neighbor? No way, and she not only did that but advocated for the salvation of her household as well. A Gentile woman, whom the Jews at that time would not have seen as equal because of their hard hearts, proved to have a faith that loved like Abraham, the father of the faithful, and it showed in the way she loved others.
The Application – We Need to Love
In the end, I hope to have made a compelling case for what this passage really means. We need to love. We need to be perfected in love. We need to not doubt God, not speak evil against brothers, stay away from sin, show no partiality in anything we do (1 Timothy 5:21), and bridle our tongues. And this is only possible if we have a faith that works, a faith that loves.
As John puts it in 1 John 2:
“Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” (1 John 2:9, 11 ESV)
And elsewhere:
“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” (1 John 1:6 ESV)
Those who love God don’t walk in darkness; we walk in the light of love. They stay steadfast under trial and do not leave the faith, and they love their neighbors and provide what they need. So believe God. Love Him. War against sin. And love your brothers and sisters.
Because as James put it:
“For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” (James 2:26 ESV)
The body apart from the spirit is dead, we all know that. But faith apart from love is dead as well.