James 2:14.— The Jews retained the highest reverence for their law, and would adhere to it as the method of justification or acceptance with God, even after the coming of the gospel of Christ. Whereas the apostles assured them, that faith, or the gospel method, was the only way in which they could hope for acceptance. Some of the JewishChristians,hearingfaithextolledso much above the law, seem to have wilfully misrepresented the design of the apostles, as if by faith they had meant no more than a bare assent to the word of God; and that if men believed the doctrines, there was no necessity for obeying the commands of Christ; but that they were freed from all moral and religious works whatever, as well as from the works of the ceremonial or Jewish law; and that such a faith or mere assent to the word of God, was sufficient to justify and save them. To prevent the spreading of such a dreadful doctrine, and the manyunhappy consequences which it would have drawn after it, St. James had, in the preceding chapter, insisted upon their being doers of the word, as well as hearers of it;upontheirbridlingtheir tongues, and upon their relieving the fatherless and widows in their distresses, unless they would render all their pretences to religion vain. In the beginning of the present chapter he condemns respect of persons; and in James 2:13 points out the necessity of mercy towards men, in all such as hope for mercy with God. But now he proceeds to insist more particularly upon the necessity ofa holy life; and in the most express manner assures them, that as charity to the poor does not consist in giving them good words only, without affording them some relief, so faith in the Christian doctrine, without a holy life, ought not to be looked upon as the true Christian faith;—that the saying, "we have faith," and actually believing or assenting to the truth, is doing no more than the wicked demons, who not only believe but tremble;—that the only way of manifesting that we have true faith, is to shew it by our pious and holy lives: that, by such a faith, or in such a way, the great patriarch Abraham was justified; for he not only assented to the truths which he had received from God, but manifested his faith in God, by performing such works as he commanded him; by which means he obtained that honourable title of The Friend of God. In like manner Rahab, not only believed that God would bestow the land of Canaan upon the Israelites, but she manifested that faith by her kindness to the spies whom they sent to view the country; and thereupon she was delivered from the common destruction, and taken into the number of the people of God. From all which the apostle concludes, that as a lifeless carcase is not a man, so the faith which does not produce good works, is only the dead carcase of faith, and not the genuine Christian faith, James 2:14-26.
What doth it profit, my brethren,— In the preceding verses the apostle had enjoined them so to speak and act, as they who were to be judged by the gospel, or the law of liberty: intimating that they should be condemned if they did not. He now further enforces that injunction by asking them, "What can it signify for a man to pretend to hold the Christian faith in the greatest soundness and purity, and yet neglect the practice of good works? Is it possible that such a fruitless faith can be the means of salvation?"—I am surprised, says Dr. Doddridge, at the immense pains which commentators have taken to reconcile St. Paul and St. James, and the many hypotheses they have formed for that purpose; whereas to me nothing is more evident, than that the ideas which they affix to the word faith and works are entirely different. St. James, by the word faith, means simply an assent to the truth of the gospel, or of religious principles, without determining whether that assent be or be not effectual; and then declares, that in case this assent does not produce good works, that is, the solid virtues of the heart and life, it cannot be accepted by God: whereas St. Paul, by the word faith, means a cordial and vital assent to divine truth, which influences the heart to an holy temper; and, according to the gracious terms of the gospel, entitles a man to divine acceptance, without any regard at all to the Mosaic law, and previous to the production of any of those good works which will naturally be the fruit of it.