James 2:14-26

Christian Standard Bible

Faith and Works

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?

¹⁵ If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?^{(A) 17} In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.”^[a] Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.^{(B) 19} You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder.^(C)

²⁰ Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? ²¹ Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar? ²² You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete,^{(D) 23} and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,^[b](E) and he was called God’s friend.^{(F) 24} You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵ In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route?^{(G) 26} For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.