For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

In our verse for today James puts forth a simile. On one side, there are the body and the spirit. On the other hand, there is faith and works. The two pairs are comparable to one another.

The spirit or soul of a human person is the quickening principle of the body. It is the spirit that makes the body alive. The body is not completely and finally dead until the spirit leaves the body for good. Indeed, the body apart from the spirit is not even the body anymore, but a mere corpse. Spirit and body were designed by God to be connected to one another (Genesis 2:7). Death is the disruption of that connection.

One would think, given the biblical point of view, that faith should be comparable to the spirit and works should be comparable to the body. This is because faith is best regarded as the inward quickening principle of the outward visible acts of a person. Faith determines the direction that our outward acts take.

James reverses what we would expect. Instead, he compares spirit to works and body to faith. This is because faith apart from works is not true faith at all, but a mere intellectual assent to a dogma. It is not, in other words, the quickening principle of good works that it should be. Such “faith” is just as dead as a body without the spirit.

James is not contradicting the Apostle Paul’s teaching that Christians are justified by faith. What he is saying is that the true faith that justifies us will, by nature, yield good works. If it never does, then something is wrong with it. It is dead. Paul’s point is that mere obedience to a law can never justify us. James’ point is that mere intellectual assent to a dogma can never justify us either (James 2:24). Good works will prove the faith in the believer’s heart, and both will glorify God who ordained them.