14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 

15-17 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18-19 But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.

20-23 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?  You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.  And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and he was called God’s friend.  24-25 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. James 2:14-26 New International Version (English Standard Version link)

Are marriage vows just romantic words - or things meant to put into action from that day forward? James asks a similar question in vs 14. If we say we believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, but it leads to no change in our life, was that real faith or just words? What do you think James' big concern was in vs 15-19?

I think he was worried that some people were deluding themselves. They could say the things a Christian is meant to say – but not doing the things someone with true faith would do. The faith that pleases God leads to action. That's the point he makes with two examples of people in the Old Testament, Abraham and Rahab. (vs 20-25) What opposites they were! One was a man called by God to become the pioneer of all believers, the other a pagan prostitute. Yet both of them believed in God's power to save and expressed that faith through their actions.

Some people have thought James is contradicting the Bible's teaching that we can't be saved from our sins by trying to keep God's commandments and doing good deeds. The Bible teaches that it's only by believing on Jesus Christ, and that He is the Son of God who came in the flesh to make the perfect sacrifice to atone for sin, that we can be forgiven and made righteous in God's sight. I think his aim was to show that merely mouthing those words is not all that faith is meant to be. Look how well he expresses that in vs 26.

When the apostle Paul insisted that it's only through faith in Jesus and what He did on the cross that we are declared righteous in God's sight, he was contrasting it to those who taught we can be made right with God by carefully doing everything His law required. In other words, by our own works, not Christs. James is talking about a different kind of works. He is talking of acts that accompany our faith and are evidence of it's genuineness.

This is still an important issue for today. People are sometimes told to say a short prayer to Jesus “I'm sorry I'm a sinner and I believe you died for me”. Sadly, some soon go back to living as they had in the past. Swearing, dirty jokes, prejudice, promiscuity, dishonesty and other things which grieve God's Holy Spirit become routine again. Their faith had no life. True faith will want to put into action all that Jesus taught. We begin to care for others, especially our brothers and sisters in the Lord. And it will trust God even more deeply when the way ahead looks difficult – as it did for Abraham when God put his faith to the test. Just as a marriage vow is more than saying “I do” - so faith is more than just saying “I believe”.