02.02. Chapter 2 - Verse 17
James 2:17. Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead, being alone.
Here he cometh to accommodate the instance and similitude, and showeth that a naked profession of faith is no better than a verbal charity; God looketh upon it as dead, cold, and useless.
Even so faith.—He speaketh according to their presumption: you call it faith; and, according to appearance it hath some likeness to faith, but it is dead in itself.
If it have not works.—He doth not only intend acts of charity, but all other fruits and operations of faith. Is dead.—The apostle speaketh in allusion to a corpse or a dead plant, which hath only an outward similitude and likeness to those which are living; it is dead in regard of root, and dead in regard of fruits; it is void of the life of Christ, and it is void of good fruits. Operation or motion is an argument and effect of life. Being alone.—In the original καθʼ ἑαυτὴν, it is dead by itself, or dead in itself; that is, how great soever it be, it is all dead. We translate it ‘being alone,’ as noting the emptiness, barrenness, and nakedness of such profession or general assents; and so it suiteth with that known maxim among the Protestants, Sola fides justificat, sed non fides quœ est sola, that faith alone justifieth, but not that faith which is alone; not a naked assent or bare profession: which interpretation is suitable enough to the context.
Obs. That false faith is a dead faith. It cannot act, no more than a dead body can arise and walk; it is dead, because it doth not unite us to Christ. True faith planteth us into Christ, and so receiveth virtue and life from him: ‘I live by faith in the Son of God,’ Galatians 2:20. It is dead, because it doth not discover itself in any motions or operations of life. You may know there is life by the beating of the pulses: a living faith will be active, and bewray itself in some gracious effects; there will be liveliness in holy duties: ‘dead works’ do not become ‘the living God,’ Hebrews 9:14. There will be somewhat more than morality in duties of conversation; yea, there will be life in death itself. Faith is the life of our lives, the soul that animateth the whole body of obedience. Faith is not always alike lively, but where it is true, it is always living. We read of ‘a lively faith,’ and ‘a lively hope,’ 1 Peter 1:3, and then we have a greater feeling of the motions of the spiritual life: at other times it is only living, and then if you be not sensible of life, you will be sensible of deadness: sense is the lowest token of life; you will be complaining and groaning under corruptions. Well, then, hereby you may try your faith; doth it receive life from Christ? Doth it act? If Christ be in you, he would live in you. Never think of living with Christ, unless you live in Christ: and there is none liveth in Christ but he ‘bringeth forth much fruit,’ John 15:5.