SEV Biblia, Chapter 2:26
Porque como el cuerpo sin espíritu est muerto, así tambin la fe sin obras est muerta.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - James 2:26
Verse 26. For as the body without the spirit is dead] There can be no more a genuine faith without good works, than there can be a living human body without a soul. WE shall never find a series of disinterested godly living without true faith.
And we shall never find true faith without such a life. We may see works of apparent benevolence without faith; their principle is ostentation; and, as long as they can have the reward (human applause) which they seek, they may be continued. And yet the experience of all mankind shows how short-lived such works are; they want both principle and spring; they endure for a time, but soon wither away. Where true faith is, there is God; his Spirit gives life, and his love affords motives to righteous actions. The use of any Divine principle leads to its increase. The more a man exercises faith in Christ, the more he is enabled to believe; the more he believes, the more he receives; and the more he receives, the more able he is to work for God. Obedience is his delight, because love to God and man is the element in which his soul lives. Reader, thou professest to believe; show thy faith, both to God and man, by a life conformed to the royal law, which ever gives liberty and confers dignity.
"Some persons, known to St. James, must have taught that men are justified by merely believing in the one true God; or he would not have taken such pains to confute it. Crediting the unity of the Godhead, and the doctrine of a future state, was that faith through which both the Jews in St. James' time and the Mohammedans of the present day expect justification.
St. James, in denying this faith to be of avail, if unaccompanied with good works, has said nothing more than what St. Paul has said, in other words, Romans 2, where he combats the same Jewish error, and asserts that not the hearers but the doers of the law will be justified, and that a knowledge of God's will, without the performance of it, serves only to increase our condemnation."- Michaelis.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 26. For as the body without the spirit is dead , etc.] This simile is made use of to illustrate what the apostle had asserted in ( James 2:17,20) that as a body, when the spirit or soul is departed from it, or the breath is gone out of it, is dead, and without motion, and useless; which the Jews express in like manner, jwr alb Pwg rgp , the body without the spirit, or breath, is a carcass. So faith without works is dead also : a vain thing, useless and unprofitable, can neither justify, nor save, nor prove that a man is justified, or will be saved.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 14-26 - Those are wrong who put a mere notional belief of the gospel for the whole of evangelical religion, as many now do. No doubt, true fait alone, whereby men have part in Christ's righteousness, atonement, an grace, saves their souls; but it produces holy fruits, and is shown to be real by its effect on their works; while mere assent to any form of doctrine, or mere historical belief of any facts, wholly differs from this saving faith. A bare profession may gain the good opinion of piou people; and it may procure, in some cases, worldly good things; but what profit will it be, for any to gain the whole world, and to los their souls? Can this faith save him? All things should be accounte profitable or unprofitable to us, as they tend to forward or hinder the salvation of our souls. This place of Scripture plainly shows that a opinion, or assent to the gospel, without works, is not faith. There is no way to show we really believe in Christ, but by being diligent in good works, from gospel motives, and for gospel purposes. Men may boas to others, and be conceited of that which they really have not. Ther is not only to be assent in faith, but consent; not only an assent to the truth of the word, but a consent to take Christ. True believing is not an act of the understanding only, but a work of the whole heart That a justifying faith cannot be without works, is shown from tw examples, Abraham and Rahab. Abraham believed God, and it was reckone unto him for righteousness. Faith, producing such works, advanced his to peculiar favours. We see then, ver. #(24), how that by works a ma is justified, not by a bare opinion or profession, or believing withou obeying; but by having such faith as produces good works. And to have to deny his own reason, affections, and interests, is an action fit to try a believer. Observe here, the wonderful power of faith in changin sinners. Rahab's conduct proved her faith to be living, or havin power; it showed that she believed with her heart, not merely by a assent of the understanding. Let us then take heed, for the best works without faith, are dead; they want root and principle. By faith an thing we do is really good; as done in obedience to God, and aiming a his acceptance: the root is as though it were dead, when there is n fruit. Faith is the root, good works are the fruits; and we must see to it that we have both. This is the grace of God wherein we stand, and we should stand to it. There is no middle state. Every one must eithe live God's friend, or God's enemy. Living to God, as it is the consequence of faith, which justifies and will save, obliges us to d nothing against him, but every thing for him and to him __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
ωσπερ 5618 γαρ 1063 το 3588 σωμα 4983 χωρις 5565 πνευματος 4151 νεκρον 3498 εστιν 2076 5748 ουτως 3779 και 2532 η 3588 πιστις 4102 χωρις 5565 των 3588 εργων 2041 νεκρα 3498 εστιν 2076 5748
Vincent's NT Word Studies
26. Works (twn ergwn). Note the article: the works belonging or corresponding to faith; its works.
