Editing Epistle of James (section)

=== Works, deeds and care for the poor ===
James and the [[M Source]] material in Matthew are unique in the canon in their stand against the rejection of works and deeds.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hagner|first=Donald A. |date=2007 |title= Paul as a Jewish Believer in Skarsaune and Reidar Hvalvik, eds., Jewish Believers in Jesus: The Early Centuries|location= Peabody, Massachusetts|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |pages= 96–120|isbn=978-0-664-25018-8}}</ref> According to Sanders, traditional Christian theology wrongly divested the term "works" of its ethical grounding, part of the effort to characterize Judaism as legalistic.<ref>{{cite book |last= Sanders|first= P. |date=1977 |title= Paul and Palestinian Judaism|url= https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/9781506438146|publisher= Fortress Press|page= 236|isbn=1506438148}}</ref> However, for James and for all Jews, faith is alive only through Torah observance.{{dubious|date=May 2024}} In other words, belief demonstrates itself through practice and manifestation. For James, claims about belief are empty, unless they are alive in action, works and deeds.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hartin |first1= Patrick J. |date=2015 |title= The Letter of James: Faith Leads to Action|journal=Word & World |volume= 35|issue= 3|pages= 229}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.|source=''Epistle of James'' 1:22–25<ref>{{bibleverse|James|1:22–25|NIV}}</ref>}}

{{blockquote|Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. |source=''Epistle of James'' 1:27<ref>{{bibleverse|James|1:27|NIV}}</ref>}}

{{blockquote|Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.|source=''Epistle of James'' 2:12–13<ref>{{bibleverse|James|2:12–13|NIV}}</ref>}}

The epistle emphasizes the importance of acts of charity or works to go along with having the Christian faith by means the following three verses in chapter 2:

{{blockquote|What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but hath not works? Shall faith be able to save him?|James 2:14}}

{{blockquote|But some man will say: Thou hast faith, and I have works. Shew me thy faith without works; and I will shew thee, by works, my faith.|James 2:18}}

{{blockquote|But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?|James 2:20<ref>{{Cite web |title=Catholic Epistle of St. James the Apostle {{!}} EWTN |url=https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/catholic-epistle-of-st-james-the-apostle-12348 |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=EWTN Global Catholic Television Network |language=en}}</ref>}}