James 2:19Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Great diligence is absolutely necessary in order to enter heaven. If those who endured so much in the wilderness were not deemed worthy of the land and could not receive it, because they murmured and committed fornication, how shall we be deemed worthy of heaven if we live indifferently and negligently? Therefore great zeal is necessary for us. And again: "Faith without works is dead" (Jas 2:26). And rightly so. For as a beautiful and flourishing body, if it has no strength, is like a painted image, so is right faith without works. Spoudasomen is absent from the manuscripts of the New Testament text.

By such works he would show the truth of his faith and that it is pleasing to God. Not only does he perform them himself, but he asks another who has works corresponding to faith to perform similar imaginary miracles.

By these he would prove the truth of his faith. He says to the other: Show me your faith from your works, that is, from your miracles, and I will show you my faith from my works, that is, from my miracles.

Let no Christian believe such a pseudo-wonderworker, who lacks Christian works and evangelical life. Good works and a virtuous life save a man, not miracles.

As the Lord said, "Many will say to Me in that day: Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Thy name, cast out demons in Thy name, and do many mighty works in Thy name?

And then I will declare to them: I never knew you; depart from Me, you who work lawlessness" (Mt 7:22-23).

In another place the Lord Himself characterizes such sheep-like wolves with these words: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them" (Mt 7:15).

And again: "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them" (Mt 7:19-20). By fruits the Lord means not miracles, but the good or evil works of each person.

That the divine James had in mind the same meaning as we have interpreted in this saying is shown by the words that follow. By them the brother of God refutes all the grandiloquence and vanity of one who does not perform virtuous works, but falsely works wonders.

You believe, he says, that God is one? You do well. Yet know that the demons, like you, believe that there is one true God, and they tremble before Him.

Your confession of faith is right and genuine. Yet you gain absolutely no benefit from it if, through good works, you do not unite yourself to God.

That is, you gain nothing if you do not keep the commandments of the God in whom you believe, even if you perform thousands of imaginary miracles.

Likewise the demons gain no benefit from knowing that there is a true God, nor from inflaming the imagination and performing miracles and signs. Instead, they will receive still greater condemnation in the unquenchable fire.

This is because they do not do God's will and do not keep His commandments.

Let those Christians hear this who believe in God, but do not keep God's commandments. Let them hear with whom they are compared: with demons, who confess, "What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Son of God? Hast Thou come here to torment us before the time?" (Mt 8:29).

And again: "I know who Thou art, the Holy One of God" (Mk 1:24). Both they and the demons alike name God by confession of words. Yet by their evil works they deny God's dominion.

They do not even have the signs of obedience and love toward the Master and God. Therefore Paul said of them, "They profess to know God, but by their works they deny Him" (Tit 1:16).

A deed is certainly more trustworthy than a word for presenting the truth. If someone does not do the works of light, even if he says a thousand times that he loves the light, he is a liar.

Conversely, if someone does them, even though he does not say that he loves the light, by his deeds he silently shows that he loves it.

It seems to me that this saying has the following meaning. If someone says, You, brother, say that you have faith alone, while I say the opposite, that I have works alone, then if you have faith, as you say, how shall I know this?

Therefore show me this faith from your works. But you will not be able to show it, because you do not have works that reveal faith.

Since I say that I have only works, I can show you that I also have faith. From my works I will make you understand that I have faith, although I do not say that I have it.

By this the brother of God wishes to show that works are more persuasive and confirmatory. Faith, being in the soul, is invisible and cannot be manifested to others without visible bodily works that follow and reveal faith.

Works can assure others that the one who has them certainly also has faith in his soul. If he did not have it, he would not perform these good, God-pleasing, and virtuous works, which an unbelieving man cannot perform.

The divine Gregory of Sinai confirms this opinion, saying: "Grace is not faith alone, but also active prayer. For it visibly shows true faith, which has the life of Jesus and is produced by the Spirit through love.

Therefore faith is dead and lifeless in the one who does not see it acting within himself. Let not even that one be called faithful who believes only by a bare word and does not have faith acting through love or the Spirit.

Thus one must show it visibly through progress in the practice of good works. Or one must have it acting in light and shining in works, as the divine Apostle says: Show me your faith from your works, and I will show you my faith from my works.

By this he shows that grace-filled faith is revealed by works according to the commandments, just as the commandments are fulfilled in deed and become radiant through faith, which is in grace.

Faith is the root of the commandments, or rather the spring that waters them for growth. It is divided into two, confession and grace, yet remains undivided by nature" (Very Useful Chapters Arranged Acrostically, 119).

We note here that Saint Meletius the Confessor gives us a corresponding story in his book called Paradise. When a monk died who had an unclean life and had secretly been in a fornicated relationship with a certain nun, miracles began to occur at his grave.

All this was imaginary and through demonic cooperation, since his sin was unknown to anyone. When the nun confessed to the hierarch and said that this pseudo-wonderworker had corrupted her, the miracles ceased and could no longer occur.

And again in the same place: "After the death of a harlot, signs and miracles began to occur at her grave. This happened through satanic activity, to deceive and persuade the simple that fornication does no harm at all.

Do you see how sinful people perform miracles, yet do not perform virtuous works?" What, then, is the conclusion? First, miracles are not yet an indicator of good works, but are either demonic activity or a work of Christian faith.

Second, good works and a virtuous life are higher than miracles. A demon cannot perform them, because as an evildoer and inventor of evil, he cannot be virtuous.

Let Christians hear what the divine Cyril of Alexandria says to them, citing this saying of the brother of the Lord. Faith alone is not sufficient for them to become God's own and friends of God.

If it were so, then the demons too would be God's own and friends of God, since they also believe that God is one. But this is impossible, that is, such friendship between demons and God.

Therefore faith alone is useless. He writes word for word: "That faith alone by itself, without the accompaniment of good works, will not be able to provide communion with God, the disciple of Christ indicates in the words: 'You believe that God is one; even the demons believe, and tremble.'

For in that case one may say to those who suppose that bare and empty faith alone will suffice for them to obtain communion above: Will the very assembly of demons also be raised to communion with God, once it acknowledges and believes that He is one?

But can this be? For it is useless merely to know that God is the one Creator and Maker of all. Rather, I think, faith must be accompanied by the adornment of reverence toward Him" (Commentary on the Gospel of John, book 10, chapter 2).

Therefore Gregory the Theologian also said in his iambic quatrains: "A silent deed is better than an unfulfilled word. No one ever became exalted without good works, while many were glorified without elegant speech.

Grace is given not to the one who speaks, but to the one who lives well." And again: "Fewer words will be needed if you do what is required. A painter teaches more by his paintings."

The apostle rebukes it in his readers, who had received it as though by inheritance from their Jewish fathers, vainly expecting salvation through cold faith. But the Apostle James approves true and living faith. He considers it to cooperate with good works and to assist in justification before God and in drawing near to Him. Thus the Apostle James does not speak of salvation through works alone, but in connection with living faith (verse 24). We see the same in the Apostle Paul, who says that in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has power, but faith working through love (Gal 5:6). From the works named by the Apostle Paul, it is clear that he did not deny significance in salvation to works in general. He denied such significance only to ritual works, such as circumcision, which lost their meaning with the establishment of the New Covenant. It must also be observed that the Apostle Paul, in giving an example of a believer, points to the same Abraham to whom the Apostle James points. Before the Apostle James stood people who had accepted faith in Christ, but continued to live like pagans. Before the Apostle Paul stood false teachers who asserted that no one could be saved without observing the Law of Moses and all its ordinances. By this the very essence of the teaching on justification through faith in Christ was overthrown. Therefore the holy Apostle James, in his Epistle, speaks of the insufficiency of cold faith without works. He requires faith to be not dead, but living. The Apostle Paul speaks of the insufficiency of the works of the law without heartfelt faith (see Rom 3:31; Rom 9:31-32). Thus they fully agree in requiring from Christians both faith and works of piety. They also speak in the same way about the cooperation of faith with works and of works with faith (cf. Jas 2:22 and Heb 11:33-37). The Apostle James even points to a passage of Scripture that, at first glance, seems more suited to the unjustly supposed exclusive teaching of Paul. This is the reckoning of Abraham's heartfelt faith as righteousness, before it had yet passed into deed in the sacrifice of Isaac.