Editing Epistle of James (section)

=== Justification ===
{{Main|Justification (theology)|Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification|Sola fide}}
The epistle contains the following famous passage concerning [[Salvation in Christianity|salvation]] and justification:

{{blockquote|What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 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? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 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. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 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. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 
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? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.|source=''Epistle of James'' 2:14-26<ref>{{bibleverse|James|2:14–26|ESV}}</ref>}}

This passage has been contrasted with the teachings of Paul the Apostle on justification. Some scholars even believe that the passage is a response to Paul.<ref>{{cite book |first=Scot |last=McKnight |title=The Letter of James |publisher=William B. Eerdmans |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |series=The New International Commentary on the New Testament |isbn=978-0-8028-2627-5 |year=2011 |pages=259–263}}</ref> One issue in the debate is the meaning of the Greek word {{lang|grc|δικαιόω}} (''dikaiόō''), 'render righteous or such as he ought to be'),<ref>{{cite web|title=Dikaioo|url=http://www.studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=1344|work=Greek Lexicon|access-date=16 May 2012}}</ref> with some among the participants taking the view that James is responding to a misunderstanding of Paul.<ref name="Martin 2009">Martin, D. 2009. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWj6j2Dswc New Testament History & Literature: 18. Arguing with Paul]. Yale University.</ref>

[[Roman Catholicism]] and [[Eastern Orthodoxy]] have historically argued that the passage disproves simplistic versions of the doctrine of justification by faith alone ({{lang|la|[[sola fide]]}}).<ref>{{cite book|title=Catechism of the Catholic Church|chapter-url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_P66.HTM|chapter=The Theological Virtues: 1815|quote=The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it. But 'faith apart from works is dead':[James 2:26] when it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his Body.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Schaff|first=Philip|title=Creeds of Christendom|year=1877|publisher=Harper & Brothers|chapter-url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds1.v.vii.html|chapter=The Synod of Jerusalem and the Confession of Dositheus, A.D. 1672: Article XIII|quote=Man is justified, not by faith alone, but also by works.}}</ref>

The early Protestants resolved the apparent conflict between James and Paul regarding faith and works in alternate ways from the Catholics and Orthodox.<ref>{{cite book|last=Calvin|first=John|title=Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles|chapter-url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom45.vi.iii.vii.html|chapter=James 2:20–26|quote=When, therefore, the Sophists set up James against Paul, they go astray through the ambiguous meaning of a term.}}</ref> One modern American Protestant explanation pre-supposes that James taught {{lang|la|sola fide}}:

{{blockquote|Paul was dealing with one kind of error while James was dealing with a different error. The errorists Paul was dealing with were people who said that works of the law were needed to be added to faith in order to help earn God's favor. Paul countered this error by pointing out that salvation was by faith alone apart from deeds of the law (Galatians 2:16; Romans 3:21–22). Paul also taught that saving faith is not dead but alive, showing thanks to God in deeds of love (Galatians 5:6 ['...since in Christ Jesus it is not being circumcised or being uncircumcised that can effect anything – only faith working through love.']). James was dealing with errorists who said that if they had faith they didn't need to show love by a life of faith (James 2:14–17). James countered this error by teaching that faith is alive, showing itself to be so by deeds of love (James 2:18,26). James and Paul both teach that salvation is by faith alone and also that faith is never alone but shows itself to be alive by deeds of love that express a believer's thanks to God for the free gift of salvation by faith in Jesus.|source=''Faith and Works'', Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod<ref name=WELS>{{cite web |url=http://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?1518&cuTopic_topicID=19&cuItem_itemID=6343 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220114120/http://arkiv.lbk.cc/faq/site.pl%401518cutopic_topicid19cuitem_itemid6343.htm |archive-date=20 December 2013 |work=WELS Topical Q&A |title=Faith and Works |publisher=[[Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod]] |access-date=30 Sep 2015 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref>}}

According to [[Ben Witherington III]], differences exist between the [[Apostles in the New Testament|Apostle]] Paul and James, but both used the [[law of Moses]], the [[Jesus in Christianity#Teachings, parables and miracles|teachings of Jesus]] and other Jewish and non-Jewish sources, and "Paul was not anti-law any more than James was a [[Legalism (theology)|legalist]]".<ref name="BWIII 2004 Brother">[https://books.google.com/books?id=NnDSKgmm4gEC&q=james%20was%20a%20legalist&pg=PP1 Shanks, Hershel and Witherington III, Ben. (2004). ''The Brother of Jesus: The Dramatic Story & Meaning of the First Archaeological Link to Jesus & His Family''.] HarperSanFrancisco, CA. Retrieved September 18, 2019. {{ISBN|978-0060581176}}.</ref>{{rp|157–158}} A more recent article suggests that the current confusion regarding the Epistle of James about faith and works resulted from [[Augustine of Hippo]]'s anti-[[Donatism|Donatist]] polemic in the early fifth century.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wilson |first1=Kenneth |title=Reading James 2:18–20 with Anti-Donatist Eyes: Untangling Augustine's Exegetical Legacy |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |date=2020 |volume=139 |issue=2 |pages=389–410}}</ref> This approach reconciles the views of Paul and James on faith and works.{{explain|date=January 2024}}<!-- That would appear to resolve a huge schism-causing controversy; this begs for an explanation, or to be dropped. -->