James 2:14-26
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead."
Not slamming anyone here, but it is, I think, one of the reasons at the root of the complaints some have about the hypocrisy in certain segments of Christianity.
I know of a specific example of a "born again" who preached to co-workers about "faith" (often turning them off because his behavior spoke otherwise in terms of how he dealt with people), honestly believed that once "born again" one had a golden ticket to heaven, and who also actively stole pricey equipment from the job site.
For the latter, one can point to Matthew 7:16, following the warning against false prophets, but equally applies to those who say one thing, but their actions say something quite another.
And on that, this should really be in the religion forum.
1 Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto , which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
[And on that, this should really be in the religion forum.]
Religion is vain, God saves mankind by faith in Jesus Christ who is His only begotten Son. This good news is valid to whomsoever will hear and believe the Word of God by Jesus Christ who is our sin bearer.
Since you and I have inherited the life of Adam in our blood (the life is in the blood; the blood is not the life, it carries the life in it) we are not capable of being good in and of our efforts. It is a new life which GOD places in us via His Holy Spirit that generates 'good works' ... we cannot behave/do good deeds without the source of Good in us. And James would know, since he did not believe in Jesus as Messiah until after the resurrection.
BUT THEN JAMES had a spiritual conversion, and it was so strong in him (that tends to be the result of The Spirit of GOD coming in to cleanse and raise one up in the way that we should go) that he was the leader of the Body of Believers in Jerusalem, the site of the opening of the Kingdom of Grace-dealt righteousness. James says someone can claim to be born from above, but without the Holy Spirit transforming that one via new life in that one, it is not likely that one has actually been born from above.
Too many read James and think he was speaking of good deeds toward the poor and the orphaned, and they miss that James is/was a living example of what being born from above translates into in living.
It was common for a Jew to say 'we have Abraham and Moses as our source so we are the chosen ones. What JAmes wrote to the Jews in Jerusalem likely was aimed at addressing this faux identity from derivation, to refocus their minds on the one-to-one relationship GOD establishes when someone is born from above.
Here at FR we see sincere Catholics and Mormons claiming they are followers of 'the one true church', much the way the Jews in James's day would cite that they are descended from Abraham and Moses so they are the favored ones. That is a clear sign of 'institutionalization' not salvation. James addresses that mistake by telling his audience that the behavior of that one tells us what Life is in them. The faux life claims an institution as their source of righteousness (works based religions all do that); the truly born from above live because HIS LIFE is in them, raising them up in the way that they should go.
So long as you are in this fleshly body inherited from Adam, you will have his blood-life carrying his fallen nature throughout your body. BUT GOD has a way to grace you with HIS life via Christ's blood shed for you, so that by spiritual quickening you have Christ LIFE blood as your spiritual inheritance. And God will transform those of such Spirit Life, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when He comes to get us in the clouds and return to the Father's House. In that moment of transformation, the body and blood inherited from Adam will be left behind, so the sin nature will nop longer be a apart of your reality.
James taught that the new life can manifest in our behavior and James taught that he would show that new life as the NEW LIFE leads his behavior. The old life would gradually lose power over him. And it did ... it is said that James's knees were like camel knees, he spent so much time on them following the resurrection and accepting leadership of the Ekklesia in Jerusalem.