NOTES for Jam 2:17

The apostle James speaks about one of the fundamental truths of our faith. The apostle writes several times in various formulations that faith without works is dead. The apostle asks at the beginning the question to know, if faith which has no works can save somebody. Then he says that faith without works is dead, just below he underlines that faith without works is inactive, and already at the very end, he repeats again that the faith without works is dead. The prophet Habakkuk heard from God the revelation that righteous faith will be live. Faith in the biblical sense of the word is first of all for man a source of life, since it is only by faith that we enter into connection with the Creator.

The apostle James says that this faith has to be expressed in life, in our deeds and the acts. Otherwise it is exactly inactive, and gives nothing to us for the salvation from death. Someone’s faith has to be the strength acting in the world and transforming him. What is it {faith} useful for, if this strength does not act? The three examples quoted by the apostle James, give us the possibility of seeing, the expression a genuine faith has to find: mercy to people, trust God and respect for the truth. As the prophet Micah said: "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?".