The surface contradiction between James and Paul, which made Luther call this an epistle of straw, and the Tü bingen critics hail it as a Judaist's attack upon Paulinism, troubles no one now, simply because faith is seen to be used in entirely different senses. It is creed here, personal trust there. James, who is most probably prior in time, teaches that orthodoxy defined in true Jewish fashion as acceptance of the Shema (James 2:19; Deuteronomy 6:4) can never save until it has its logical outcome in conduct. Paul makes trust vital, just because nothing else can produce conduct after the mind of God.
James 2:14 belongs naturally to the doctrine of Saying and Doing. To repeat a creed and not live up to it is as grotesquely futile as to feed the starving with unctuous good wishes. The creed, if it does not carry actions which flow logically from its presuppositions, is simply dead like mediæ val controversies about subjects no longer alive to-day. Read James 2:18 f. with RV text. The speaker is confronted by a superior person, proud of his orthodoxy: he may reply that real orthodoxy, a right relation to God, is only proved by conduct. He can-' t be wrong whose life is in the right. The orthodox person pronounces his Shema with aggressive conviction; but if he goes no further, he has nothing better than the demons, whose orthodoxy only brings them terror (cf. Mark 1:24; Mark 5:7). You empty head! cries James, can-' t you see that belief without conduct is simply idle? The great example of belief, Abraham, who was so orthodox that he believed an impossibility because God promised it, was really declared righteous for what he did; the reality of that belief was at once tested and deepened by action resulting from belief. Genesis 15:2; Genesis 15:8 showed even Abraham deficient in belief: the sacrifice of Isaac (Hebrews 11:19) made it perfect. His title Friend of God (see refs.) is specially connected with God's taking him into confidence about His purpose: cf. Genesis 18:17 with John 15:15. The proof is finally clinched by an opposite example, also used in Hebrews 11:31 * (cf. Matthew 1:5 *): a degraded and heathen woman had such a practical belief in the supremacy of Israel's God that she helped the scouts of Joshua even against her own people. So we come to the summing up: as a body that does not breathe is dead, so is belief which does not act.