[2:14] My friends, what good is it for one of you to say that you have faith if your actions do not prove it? Can that faith save you?
[2:15] Suppose there are brothers or sisters who need clothes and don't have enough to eat.
[2:16] What good is there in your saying to them, “God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!”—if you don't give them the necessities of life?
[2:17] So it is with faith: if it is alone and includes no actions, then it is dead.
[2:18] But someone will say, “One person has faith, another has actions.” My answer is, “Show me how anyone can have faith without actions. I will show you my faith by my actions.”
[2:19] Do you believe that there is only one God? Good! The demons also believe—and tremble with fear.
[2:20] You fool! Do you want to be shown that faith without actions is useless?
[2:21] How was our ancestor Abraham put right with God? It was through his actions, when he offered his son Isaac on the altar.
[2:22] Can't you see? His faith and his actions worked together; his faith was made perfect through his actions.
[2:23] And the scripture came true that said, “Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous.” And so Abraham was called God's friend.
[2:24] You see, then, that it is by our actions that we are put right with God, and not by our faith alone.
[2:25] It was the same with the prostitute Rahab. She was put right with God through her actions, by welcoming the Israelite spies and helping them to escape by a different road.
[2:26] So then, as the body without the spirit is dead, also faith without actions is dead.