James 2:17
Holman Christian Standard Bible
17 In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.
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James 2:17
The Message
Faith in Action
14-17 Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?
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James 2:17
New Living Translation
17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
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James 2:17
Amplified Bible
17 So too, faith, if it does not have works [to back it up], is by itself dead [inoperative and ineffective].
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James 2:20
Holman Christian Standard Bible
20 Foolish man! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?
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James 2:20
The Message
19-20 Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?
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James 2:20
New Living Translation
20 How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?
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James 2:20
Amplified Bible
20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish [spiritually shallow] person, that faith without [good] works is useless?
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James 2:26
Holman Christian Standard Bible
26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
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James 2:26
The Message
25-26 The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn’t her action in hiding God’s spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing—what counted with God? The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.
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James 2:26
New Living Translation
26 Just as the body is dead without breath,[a] so also faith is dead without good works.
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- 2:26 Or without spirit.
James 2:26
Amplified Bible
26 For just as the [human] body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works [of obedience] is also dead.
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