James 2:25Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Listen to what Scripture says about Rahab, testifying to her good works. In the brothel she was like a pearl mixed into mud, gold thrown into filth, a flower of piety covered with thorns, a pious soul locked in a land of dishonor.

So that some might not say that the example of the forefather Abraham does not fit their case, since none of them is required to offer children to God in sacrifice, and since God Himself forbids such a thing in Scripture, James gives another example. He gives the example of a corrupt woman, a foreign woman, who served God by works of mercy, showing hospitality even at the risk of her own life.

"Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?" Although the holy brother of God could have brought forward thousands of others who were justified by good works, according to St. Metrophanes he considered it sufficient to bring forward two persons as examples. One was from among the righteous, the patriarch Abraham, of whom we spoke above. The other was from among sinners, Rahab the harlot, of whom the present passage speaks. By bringing both forward as examples, he wishes to show that both saints and sinners were saved through two things: through faith and through works. Why then does the divine Paul say that this Rahab was saved by faith, while James here says that she was saved through works?

"Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot justified by works?" The Apostle James points to another striking example of the significance good works have together with faith in Rahab. When the Hebrews entered the promised land, she saved the spies sent by Joshua, and for this she herself was saved from destruction when Jericho was taken by the Hebrews. Rahab, as a Canaanite woman, did not descend from Abraham's offspring. As a woman, she did not bear in her flesh the sign of the covenant. Yet for her works and for her service to the Hebrew people, she was granted great honor. She not only shared with the people of God their rights to the promised land, but also became a participant in the highest privilege of the Israelite people.

The apostle points to another similar example of justification by works and not by faith alone in Rahab the harlot, of whom the book of Joshua speaks (chapters 2 and 6). Why is this example chosen? Most likely, to prove more vividly the universality in the Kingdom of God of this law: that a man is justified not by faith alone, but by faith joined to works of faith. First the example of the greatest forefather of the Hebrew people was set forth. But this law acts both in the great and in the small. Here Rahab stands very far from the great Abraham: a woman, a Canaanite, a harlot. Nevertheless, by her works, again generalizing one fact as in verse 21, she was justified, and again precisely by works of faith (cf. Heb 11:31).

For this reason he also gives the example of Rahab the harlot, in whose justification the significance of the deed is especially visible.