Faith without works

James 2:14-26 NASB

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?  If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,  and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for  their  body, what use is that?  Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead,  being  by itself.
  But someone may  well  say, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works."  You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.  But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?  You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;  and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And abraham believed god, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," and he was called the friend of God.  You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.  In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?  For just as the body without  the  spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

My thoughts -

I wrote on Sunday about faith and how it requires action. Here James tells us that if we do not do works, if faith does not compell us to action, then it is dead.

I have nothing that I can say to add to this. I will let Rich Mullins do that for me.