James 2:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

One faith justifies the one who comes by confession alone, if he is immediately released from life. He has no works, but purification through Baptism is sufficient for him. The other faith requires the manifestation of good works from one who has already been baptized. Paul also agrees with this. In another place he says and teaches that faith after Baptism requires perfection through works, when he says: "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has power, but faith working through love" (Gal 5:6). But love requires much wisdom for its fullness.

This beautiful phrase of James echoes what Paul said: "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son, of whom it was said, 'In Isaac shall your seed be called,' for he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead" (Heb 11:17-19). Looking to the example of one and the same righteous man, James praises the greatness of his works, while Paul praises the constancy of his faith. There is no contradiction between what Paul and James write. For both knew that Abraham was perfect both in faith and in works. Each simply gave greater attention to the virtue of which the recipients of his Epistle had greater need.

However, certain Fathers, among them the divine Cyril of Alexandria, resolve the apparent disagreement between the two Apostles in this way. They say that Abraham himself is considered an image and example of the twofold meaning of faith at different times.

The first is the faith that exists before Baptism. This does not require obligatory works, but only the confession of the dogmas with the mouth.

Yet before Baptism this faith is tested for a sufficient time, to see whether it is firm and what the disposition of the catechumen's soul is.

For if someone should be baptized and immediately happen to die, his confession alone and the purity granted through Baptism will sufficiently justify him, even though he did not have time to do good works.

Abraham showed such faith at the beginning. For when God said to him, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if you are able to number them," He then said, "So shall your seed be" (Gen 15:5).

When Abraham heard this, he believed without wavering in the promise of God. As Scripture then says, "And Abram believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness" (Gen 15:6).

The same Abraham is also an image of faith after Baptism, which is joined to good works. It requires from the baptized person the obligatory practice of Christ's commandments as the testimony of faith.

Abraham showed such faith later, when God told him to ascend the mountain and there offer his son in sacrifice. Obeying God's words, he already wished to offer him in sacrifice by the deed itself.

Therefore, since Abraham showed simple faith, which does not require works, Paul said that Abraham was justified by faith without works.

Yet Abraham also showed faith accompanied by works. Therefore James says here that he was justified by works, citing the testimony of Scripture: "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."

Although this was said of Abraham at the beginning, when Abraham wished to offer his son in sacrifice by the deed itself, he believed that God was able to raise his son from the dead.

For God had said that He would multiply Abraham's seed like the stars, and from this son He would multiply his race. This is why the saying about Abraham's faith is placed here in reference to works.

In what place of divine Scripture Abraham is literally called the friend of God is not found. Yet this is implied from other sayings of Scripture which call Abraham beloved by God.

Isaiah says, "The seed of Abraham, whom I have loved" (Is 41:8). And the three youths say in the hymn, "For the sake of Abraham, beloved by You" (Ode 8).

One beloved by God and a friend of God are almost the same thing.

Basil the Great also cites this saying in his fifth discourse against Eunomius. He says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.

"Blessed Abraham is named the friend of God, and truly a friend: a friend by faith, a friend by obedience."

The divine Cyril of Alexandria also says, "Abraham believed. From this you can see with complete clarity the cause of the glory that belonged to him.

"Since he was called the friend of Almighty God, he therefore became great and glorious. Faith was accounted to him as righteousness, and righteousness from faith became for him the cause of freedom according to God" (Book 5, Commentary on John).

It is known that possession of Abraham's inheritance and outward prosperity alone were not the concern of the pious Jew. He also cared for inner uprightness of heart and justification before the righteous and all-holy God, who can give the whole earth as a possession to those who love Him (Ps 36:29), and will deliver them from all sorrows (Ps 33:20). Thus righteousness and blessedness, prosperity and salvation, were united in the Jewish understanding. They became inseparable realities accompanying one another. They became the object and goal of his whole life and activity. But in understanding and choosing the means to attain this goal, the Jews differed even to the point of contradiction. Some considered strict and exact fulfillment of the Mosaic Law necessary for this, down to the smallest details, whether moral, civil, or ritual. Others thought to limit themselves to fulfilling only the ritual law, or even only one commandment. Still others, and these were the majority in the time of Jesus Christ, were convinced that descent from Abraham and circumcision were enough for salvation, and therefore for the inheritance of the Kingdom of God. Circumcision was the outward sign of belonging to Abraham's seed. With the coming of the Messiah, other, new, higher, and better means were shown to the heirs of the promise: faith and Baptism (Mk 16:16), love and good works (Lk 10:25-28), of course in their inward and inseparable bond. The apostle strives to unfold this inward bond between faith and good works as necessary means of justification. He takes as his model the very forefather of the Hebrew people, Abraham. But Abraham's justification, or his attainment of righteousness, through faith, was testified by Holy Scripture itself (Gen 15:6). This was known to every Jew from childhood. Therefore the apostle explains what significance Abraham's good works had in this means of justification, faith. Faith penetrated Abraham's whole life and inspired all his actions. By faith, according to the Apostle Paul, Abraham obeyed the call to go to the land of promise. By faith he dwelt there in tents. By faith in old age he received an heir from barren Sarah. Finally, by faith he offered up his only-begotten son upon the altar, to sacrifice him to God (Heb 11:8, 9, 11, 17). The sacrifice of Isaac was Abraham's greatest deed. In it his faith in God, and his devotion or obedience to God's will, reached the highest perfection. It made him the greatest righteous man before the face of God's righteousness. Abraham's title "friend of God," or in the Slavonic text "beloved," occurs in the Old Testament (2 Chr 20:7; Isa 41:8; Dan 3:35).

The justified man is the same as a righteous man, a just man, a saint. "Abraham was justified" means that he became righteous before God, or, more precisely, that God revealed him as righteous before His judgment. By what, then, was he justified, or did he attain righteousness? By works, or from works, whose crown was his readiness, at God's command, to offer his only-begotten son Isaac in sacrifice to God (Gen ch. 22). Abraham's whole life shows his unquestioning obedience to the commands of God. It is filled with the works of his faith. But especially this readiness, by which he placed his son upon the altar, was the greatest work of his faith, a spiritual feat (cf. Heb 11:17-19). In it all the righteous works of Abraham were, as it were, concentrated. It is true that in the account of this in Genesis there is no word corresponding to the word used here, that Abraham was justified by this deed. But God's words spoken at this moment clearly indicate the great significance of this deed for Abraham's justification: "Now I know that you fear God" (Gen 22:12). This was the highest work of Abraham's faith, through which God revealed his righteousness. Considering this deed of Abraham, the apostle points out in it the closest bond between faith and works. By this he proves that faith without works is nothing, is dead, and cannot grant justification or salvation.

That the holy Apostle Paul, when speaking of Abraham's faith, speaks of the very same faith for which the Apostle James contends is clear from his remark. Abraham believed in God, who gives life to the dead and calls what exists as existing (Rom 4:17). By these words the holy Apostle Paul lets it be understood that Abraham was fully ready to slay his only son. At the same time he was convinced that the Lord would nevertheless remain faithful to His promise concerning Abraham's numerous offspring. It is therefore evident that the holy Apostle Paul ascribes to Abraham not simple and abstract faith, but faith joined to the feat of slaying his son. In this active faith, like the Apostle James, he sees the cause of Abraham's justification.

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.