OVERVIEW: The duty to help one’s brothers and sisters in need is a paramount obligation of everyone who claims to have faith. Pious talk without equally serious deeds is not only useless but also wicked. Faith is shown through one’s deeds (ANDREAS). Those who practice evil but think they have faith are confused (AUGUSTINE). Words alone do not help the hungry (BEDE). Love cares about the body as well as the soul (HILARY OF ARLES, VALERIAN OF CIMIEZ). Opportunities to care for the poor may pass quickly (CAESARIUS OF ARLES). Clemency will be exalted above condemnation for those who are merciful (LEO). Lacking works, faith is dead (ORIGEN, AUGUSTINE, LEO). Works give life to faith (HILARY OF ARLES). They have faith who are willing to follow Christ in his suffering (SYMEON). Words alone do not save (CHRYSOSTOM). Faith shows through deeds (SYMEON). The devils in a sense believe that God exists (BEDE) with trembling and wordy confessions that Christ is Son of God (ANDREAS, CAESARIUS) but not with active love (AUGUSTINE). Worse than the devils are those who presume to have faith but do not even tremble (HILARY OF ARLES). No one receives the gift of justification on the basis of merit derived from works performed beforehand (BEDE). Active faith shines forth through works (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, SALVIAN). It is foolish to presume to believe without acting (OECUMENIUS).
The Fathers were well aware that Paul had spoken of salvation by faith without the works of the law, but they saw no contradiction between that and what James is saying here. The reason for this is that James and Paul are speaking in complementary ways. It is impossible to earn salvation by doing things to please God, and everyone must be clear that we can be saved only by faith. Both belief and action are intrinsic to faith (AUGUSTINE, BEDE, OECUMENIUS). Both Paul and James knew that Abraham was perfect in his faith as well as in his works (BEDE). James is talking here about faith after baptism, for a faith without works can only make us more guilty of sin, seeing that we have received a talent but are not using it profitably (OECUMENIUS). Prebaptismal faith does not of itself require works but only confession and the word of salvation, by which those who believe in Christ are justified. Postbaptismal faith is conjoined with works (ANDREAS). Isaac was an earthly type of Christ being offered up for us all (HILARY OF ARLES). When Abraham bound Isaac to the altar, he did not merely do it as a work that was required of him, but with the faith that in Isaac his seed would be as numberless as the stars of heaven, believing that God could raise him from the dead (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, OECUMENIUS). It was by Abraham’s perfect accomplishment of God’s command that the active faith that he had in his heart was shown to be perfect (BEDE). His deeds were perfected by his faith (CYRIL OF JERUSALEM). Although orthodox belief is the foundation of our common confession as Christians, it is not good enough merely to mouth the words of a creed or pronounce blessings. Christians must back up what they say with what they do. Otherwise their words will be disregarded and condemned for the hypocrites that they so obviously are.
Abraham gives us a good example, since his faith led him to be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac. Rahab is even more remarkable. As a Gentile and a harlot, she did not have either the right theology or a respectable lifestyle, but God spared her because when the test came, she did the right thing. Rahab was justified by her faith because she performed works of mercy and showed hospitality to God’s people (BEDE). Faith saves and then lives by doing its own works (DIDYMUS). Christians must therefore be both inspired and warned by these examples; inspired, because we possess so much more knowledge of the truth than either Abraham or Rahab possessed and can therefore do so much more than they did, but also warned, because if we fail to do even as much as they did, we shall be punished all the more severely for having rejected the knowledge that we have been given (BEDE).
PERSISTENT EVIL. AUGUSTINE: In order to help them, God has put fear in the hearts of believers, lest they think that they might be saved by faith alone, even if they continue to practice these evils. ON CONTINENCE 14.13.1
SHOW FAITH BY DEEDS. ANDREAS: If someone does not show by his deeds that he believes in God, his profession of faith is worthless. For it is not the one who just says that he is the Lord’s who is a believer, but the one who loves the Lord so much that he is prepared to risk even death because of his faith in him. CATENA.2
FAITH ELICITS ACTION. OECUMENIUS: Take note of what spiritual understanding really is. It is not enough to believe in a purely intellectual sense. There has to be some practical application for this belief. What James is saying here does not contradict the apostle Paul, who understood that both belief and action were a part of what he called “faith.” COMMENTARY ON JAMES.3
LOVE HELPS THE BODY. HILARY OF ARLES: These are the words of faith, spoken to those who know that there is only one God, who is the Father of all his children. True love has two sides to it—help for the body and help for the soul. Here James concentrates on the first of these because he is speaking especially to those who are rich. INTRODUCTORY TRACTATE ON THE LETTER OF JAMES.4
WORDS ALONE DO NOT HELP. BEDE: It is obvious that words alone are not going to help someone who is naked and hungry. Someone whose faith does not go beyond words is useless. Such faith is dead without works of Christian love which alone can bring it back to life. CONCERNING THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES.5
CARE FOR THE BODY. VALERIAN OF CIMIEZ: Who does not hate this kind of [merely verbal] “mercy”? In it an idle piety flatters the sick with elegant language. Fruitless tears are offered to heaven. What does it profit to bewail another man’s shipwreck if you take no care of his body, which is suffering from exposure? What good does it do to torture your soul with grief over another’s wound if you refuse him a health-giving cup? SERMONS 7.5.6
WORKS OF COMPASSION. LEO THE GREAT: Since mercy will be exalted over condemnation and the gifts of clemency will surpass any just compensation, all the lives led by mortals and all different kinds of actions will be appraised under the aspect of a single rule. No charges will be brought up where works of compassion have been found in acknowledgment of the Creator. SERMONS 11.1.7
OPPORTUNITY FOR COMPASSION PASSES. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: Christ says: “My justice can give you nothing except what your works deserve. To no purpose do you cry out, now that you are dead and in the power of another, for when you had opportunities and saw me in the person of the poor, you were blind.” SERMONS 31.4.8
LACKING WORKS, FAITH IS DEAD. ORIGEN: If someone dies in his sins he has not truly believed in Christ, even if he has made a profession of faith in him, and if faith is mentioned but it lacks works, such faith is dead, as we have read in the epistle which circulates as the work of James. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 19.152.9
KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS. AUGUSTINE: I do not understand why the Lord said, “If you want to enter into eternal life, keep the commandments,”10 and then mentioned the commandments relating to good behavior, if one is able to enter into eternal life without observing them. ON FAITH AND WORKS 15.25.11
THE STRENGTH OF FAITH. LEO THE GREAT: While faith provides the basis for works, the strength of faith comes out only in works. SERMONS 10.3.12
WORKS GIVE LIFE TO FAITH. HILARY OF ARLES: Works give life to faith, faith gives life to the soul, and the soul gives life to the body. INTRODUCTORY TRACTATE ON THE LETTER OF JAMES.13
ASHAMED TO FOLLOW CHRIST IN SUFFERING. SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN: If we are ashamed to imitate Christ’s sufferings, which he endured for us, and to suffer as he suffered, it is obvious that we shall not become partakers with him in his glory. If that is true of us, we are believers in words only and not in deeds. DISCOURSES 6.10.14
WORDS ALONE DO NOT SAVE. CHRYSOSTOM: Even if somebody believes rightly in the Father and the Son, as well as in the Holy Spirit, if he does not lead the right kind of life, his faith will not benefit him at all as far as his salvation is concerned. For although Jesus says: “This is eternal life, to know you, the only true God,”15 we must not think that merely uttering the words is enough to save us. For our life and behavior must be pure as well. CATENA.16
FAITH REFLECTED BY DEEDS. SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN: Faith is shown by deeds like the features of the face in a mirror. DISCOURSES 29.4.17
HOW DEMONS BELIEVE. AUGUSTINE: Those who believe and act according to true faith do live and are not dead, but those who do not believe, or else who believe like the demons, trembling but living evilly, proclaiming the Son of God but not having love, must rather be accounted dead. TRACTATES 22.7.2.18
THEY BELIEVE AND TREMBLE. AUGUSTINE: Will the devils see God? Those who are pure of heart will see him, and who would say that the devils are pure of heart? Nevertheless, they believe and tremble. COMMENTARY ON THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 53.10.19
WORKS ATTEST FAITH. SALVIAN THE PRESBYTER: Good works are witnesses to the Christian faith, because otherwise a Christian cannot prove that he has that faith. If he cannot prove it, it must be considered completely nonexistent. ON THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 4.2.20
BELIEF THAT LACKS REVERENCE. HILARY OF ARLES: Those who believe but who do not fear God are even worse than the devils. And those who believe and tremble but who do not practice what they preach are just like the devils. INTRODUCTORY TRACTATE ON THE LETTER OF JAMES.21
FAITH WITHOUT LOVE IS DEMONIC. BEDE: You can believe what God says, you can believe that God exists, and you can believe in him, which means that you love him so much that you want to do what he tells you. There are many evil people around who can manage the first two of these. They believe that God means what he says, and they are quite prepared to accept that he exists. But it takes someone who is not just a nominal Christian but who is one in deed and in living to love God and to do what he commands. Faith with love is Christian, but faith without love is demonic. CONCERNING THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES.22
LIP SERVICE TO FAITH. ANDREAS: James gives us the example of the devils, saying that those who profess faith with their lips only are really no better than they are. For even they believe that Christ is the Son of God, that he is the Holy One of God and that he has authority over them. CATENA.23
THE FAITH OF DEMONS. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: The apostle says that a man who believes and does not act has the faith of demons. If that is true, imagine the fate of a man who does not believe at all. SERMONS 12.5.24
PAUL AND JAMES COMPLEMENTARY. AUGUSTINE: Holy Scripture should be interpreted in a way which is in complete agreement with those who understood it and not in a way which seems to be inconsistent to those who are least familiar with it. Paul said that a man is justified through faith without the works of the law, but not without those works of which James speaks. ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 13.25
UPRIGHT LIVING. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Just as faith without works is dead, so the reverse is also true. Therefore let integrity in faith shine forth along with the glories of upright living. LETTERS 55.2.26
INTERPRETING PAUL AND JAMES TOGETHER. BEDE: Although the apostle Paul preached that we are justified by faith without works, those who understand by this that it does not matter whether they live evil lives or do wicked and terrible things, as long as they believe in Christ, because salvation is through faith, have made a great mistake. James here expounds how Paul’s words ought to be understood. This is why he uses the example of Abraham, whom Paul also used as an example of faith, to show that the patriarch also performed good works in the light of his faith. It is therefore wrong to interpret Paul in such a way as to suggest that it did not matter whether Abraham put his faith into practice or not. What Paul meant was that no one obtains the gift of justification on the basis of merit derived from works performed beforehand, because the gift of justification comes only from faith. CONCERNING THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES.27
YOU FOOLISH PERSON! OECUMENIUS: According to James, someone who thinks that it is possible to believe without acting accordingly is out of his mind. COMMENTARY ON JAMES.28
WHAT ABRAHAM TOOK ON THE MOUNT OF SACRIFICE. HILARY OF ARLES: When Abraham went up the mountain to sacrifice Isaac, he took four things with him—a sword, fire, a heavy heart and a pile of wood. What does the fire stand for if not the suffering of Christ? What does the sword signify, if not death? What does the wood indicate, if not the cross? And what is the importance of Abraham’s heavy heart, if it does not stand for the compassion of the Father and the angels as they beheld the death of Christ? Isaac was an earthly type of Christ and was offered up for us all. According to tradition this occurred on 25 March, the day on which the world was created, the day on which the last judgment will occur. The place where it happened was none other than the one which God would later choose for the site of his temple on Mount Zion, which is so called because Zion means “mirror of life,” for it was there that Abraham saw as in a mirror the life which was to be revealed in the New Testament. INTRODUCTORY TRACTATE ON THE LETTER OF JAMES.29
ABRAHAM’S BELIEVING AND DOING. BEDE: James makes deft use of the example of Abraham in order to provoke those Jews who imagined that they were worthy followers of their great ancestor. In order to show them that they did not come up to the mark in times of trial and to test their faith by specific examples, James takes Abraham as his model. For what greater trial could there be than to demand that a man sacrifice his beloved son and heir? How much more would Abraham have preferred to give all the food and clothing he possessed to the poor than to be forced to make this supreme sacrifice at God’s command? James is merely echoing what it says in Hebrews: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your descendants be named.’”30 Looking at one and the same sacrifice, James praised the magnificence of Abraham’s work, while Paul praised the constancy of his faith. But in reality the two men are saying exactly the same thing, because they both knew that Abraham was perfect in his faith as well as in his works, and each one merely emphasized that aspect of the incident which his own audience was most in need of hearing. CONCERNING THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES.31
DISTINGUISHING PRE- AND POSTBAPTISMAL FAITH. ANDREAS: Now someone might object to this and say: “Did Paul not use Abraham as an example of someone who was justified by faith, without works? And here James is using the very same Abraham as an example of someone who was justified, not by faith alone, but also by works which confirm that faith.” How can we answer this? And how can Abraham be an example of faith without works, as well as of faith with works, at the same time? But the solution is ready to hand from the Scriptures. For the same Abraham is at different times an example of both kinds of faith. The first is prebaptismal faith, which does not require works but only confession and the word of salvation, by which those who believe in Christ are justified. The second is postbaptismal faith, which is combined with works. Understood in this way, the two apostles do not contradict one another, but one and the same Spirit is speaking through both of them. CATENA.32
ABRAHAM’S ACTIVE FAITH. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: On the one hand, the blessed James says that Abraham was justified by works when he bound Isaac his son on the altar, but on the other hand Paul says that he was justified by faith, which appears to be contradictory. However, this is to be understood as meaning that Abraham believed before he had Isaac and that Isaac was given to him as a reward for his faith. Likewise, when he bound Isaac to the altar, he did not merely do the work which was required of him, but he did it with the faith that in Isaac his seed would be as numberless as the stars of heaven, believing that God could raise him from the dead.33 CATENA.34
NOTHING COMPARABLE TO GOD’S LOVE. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: He has sacrificed the spiritual victim and announced that the laws of nature have been overcome. He has opened up the heart of his unquenchable love for humanity and shown that nothing on earth can compare with the love of God. CATENA.35
HIS VIBRANT FAITH ENACTED. BEDE: Abraham had such a vibrant faith in God that he was ready to do whatever God wanted him to. This is why his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness, and it was in order that we might know the full meaning of this that God ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son. It was by his perfect accomplishment of God’s command that the faith which he had in his heart was shown to be perfect. CONCERNING THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES.36
PROVED FAITHFUL. CLEMENT OF ROME: Abraham, who was called the friend of God, proved himself faithful by becoming obedient to the words of God. LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 10.1.37
HIS DEEDS PERFECTED BY FAITH. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: Abraham was justified not by works but by faith. For although he had done many good things, he was not called a friend of God until he believed, and every one of his deeds was perfected by faith. CATECHETICAL LECTURES 5.5.38
GREAT FAITH AND WORKS. AUGUSTINE: That Abraham believed God deep in his heart is a matter of faith alone, but that he took his son to sacrifice him . . . is not just a great act of faith but a great work as well. SERMONS 2.9.39
APPROVED FOR HIS FAITH AND WORKS. OECUMENIUS: Abraham is the image of someone who is justified by faith alone, since what he believed was credited to him as righteousness. But he is also approved because of his works, since he offered up his son Isaac on the altar.40 Of course he did not do this work by itself; in doing it, he remained firmly anchored in his faith, believing that through Isaac his seed would be multiplied until it was as numerous as the stars. COMMENTARY ON JAMES.41
RIGHTEOUSNESS AS A REWARD. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The person who in faith honors the God and ruler of all has righteousness as his reward. CATENA.42
WORKS OF FAITH. BEDE: The works mentioned here are works of faith. No one can have perfect works unless he has faith, but many have perfect faith without works, since they do not always have time to do them.43 CONCERNING THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES.44
NOT WORKS OF LAW. THEOPHYLACT: The works of which James speaks are not those of the law but those of righteousness and the other virtues. COMMENTARY ON JAMES.45
NUMBERED AMONG THE SAINTS. PACHOMIUS: Rahab was a prostitute, but even so she was numbered among the saints. COMMUNION 3.25.46
A FLOWER IN THE MUD. SEVERIAN OF GABALA: Listen to the testimony of Scripture. In the midst of prostitution there was a pearl, in the mire there was burnished gold, in the mud there was a flower blooming with godliness. A godly soul was concealed in a land of impiety. CATENA.47
RAHAB JUSTIFIED BY HER FAITH. BEDE: There must have been some people who would have argued that Abraham was a special case, since nobody would now be asked to make such a sacrifice, and that therefore his example does not really count. To answer this objection, James looks through the Scriptures and refers to the case of Rahab, a wicked woman and a foreigner to boot, who nevertheless was justified by her faith because she performed works of mercy and showed hospitality to members of God’s people, even though her own life was thereby put in danger. CONCERNING THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES.48
SPIRIT BRINGS LIFE TO THE BODY. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: Just as the spirit joins itself to the body and by doing so brings the latter to life, so works, joined to faith, give life to it as well. Furthermore, it is to be understood that faith without works is not faith at all, just as a dead man is not really a human being. But how can some say that because the spirit which gives life to the body is more honorable than the body, therefore works are more honorable than faith? I have looked into this matter in some detail and shall try to explain my position on this. It is undoubtedly true that the spirit is nobler than the body, but this does not mean that works can be put before faith, because a person is saved by grace, not by works but by faith. There should be no doubt but that faith saves and then lives by doing its own works, so that the works which are added to salvation by faith are not those of the law but a different kind of thing altogether. COMMENTARY ON JAMES.49
DOCTRINE AND LIFE. CHRYSOSTOM: Faith without works is dead, and works without faith are dead also. For if we have sound doctrine but fail in living, the doctrine is of no use to us. Likewise if we take pains with life but are careless about doctrine, that will not be any good to us either. It is therefore necessary to shore up the spiritual edifice in both directions. SERMONS ON GENESIS 2.14.50
WHILE REMEDIES REMAIN. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: In order that we may bear the name Christian as a remedy, not leading to judgment, let us take up good works while the remedies are still within our power. SERMONS 13.1.51
FAITH AFTER BAPTISM. OECUMENIUS: James is talking here about faith after baptism, for a faith without works can only make us more guilty of sin, seeing that we have received a talent but are not using it profitably. The Lord himself demonstrated the need for works after baptism by going into the desert to do battle with the devil.52 Paul also exhorts those who have entered into the mystery of faith to “strive to enter his peace,”53 as if faith by itself were not enough. Holiness of life is also necessary, and for that great efforts are required. COMMENTARY ON JAMES.54