How to Understand and Teach James 2:14-26

Since “all Scripture is God-breathed,” we ought to teach the whole counsel of God… including those passages we are tempted to avoid because they’re so tricky. We want to give a few examples about how to teach tough passages in order to encourage you to teach the whole counsel of God. Read the rest of the series here: Teaching Tough Passages.

I taught through the book of James with my students this semester. James 2:14–26 was the passage that I was most concerned about teaching, because the more I studied it, the more it seemed like the integrity of the gospel was on the line. This passage, if not interpreted rightly, could paint a much different picture of salvation than we intend.

Below are four steps that assisted me in teaching this text so that my students could see how James could be harmonized with the rest of Scripture.

Be Honest about the Text

The first step I used to approach this complex text was acknowledging the difficulties of the text to my students. James 2:24 says, "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." The difficulty here is that the verbiage James uses could easily be seen as undermining the doctrine of salvation by grace alone. As I thought back to a year after my conversion from Roman Catholicism (my sophomore year of high school), I remembered reading this verse and thinking that I had been duped. I heard from my Protestant friends that we are “saved by grace through faith alone,” but this verse seemed to contradict that claim. 

However, when we read the text carefully and in context, we see that James does, in fact, address the same gospel. James rightfully communicates our inability to uphold God’s standard when he says, "Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it" (2:10). Then how are we saved? James stated earlier that we are saved by God's grace in our election (1:18), and later that His grace is freely given to those who are humble before Him (4:6). The gospel is an evident focus in James, and he urges them to receive this gospel with meekness (1:27). 

Dig Deeper into the Text

The second step was to utilize resources that would help my students understand the text better. I frequently refer to the book, Dig Deeper: Tools for Understanding God's Word, when I am teaching. This book discusses literary strategies that students are already learning in school, so it's good to show them how those same principles can grow their biblical literacy. The vocabulary tool in this book was helpful for this specific text because it clarified that the same word could have different meanings depending on the context. 

It could be easy to think that James contradicts Paul if we don't understand that words can have different meanings. For instance, Paul says that we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2), and James appears to say that we are saved by works and not faith. In reality, three major words need to be unpacked to enhance our understanding of James 2:24 – faith, works and justified. (Christopher Morgan’s chapter on “James and Paul” in A Theology of James: Wisdom for God’s People was especially helpful.)

Faith: James uses “faith” to refer to a more intellectual ascent toward knowledge about God, while Paul understands “faith” as personal trust in God. James emphasizes this kind of intellectual knowledge by describing how even demons know things about God, but one would not assume they trust in God (James 2:19).

Works: James uses “works” positively to describe good things done in response to God’s grace, while Paul often uses “works” negatively to describe actions that cannot earn favor with God. The general context of James is advocating for good works in response to the gospel. While Paul speaks about how works do not save, he also uses the word positively when he says we are saved for good works (Ephesians 2:8–10). 

Justified: James uses “justified” to acknowledge another person's standing before God, while Paul uses “justified” as God declaring our standing before Him. James 2 echoes what Jesus said in Matthew 7:16, "You will recognize them by their fruits." In other words, one can justify their belief that someone is a Christian by looking at the fruit they produce. The context of James 2 is within a dialogue between two believers where they are discerning if someone is a Christian, not a theological treatise on what happens at the moment of conversion. 

Decide How to Present the Text

The next step to handle this difficult passage was knowing my audience. It might not serve middle schoolers well to do an in-depth study of the vocabulary on James 2 and parse the different words. With younger students, a more straightforward expositional teaching would probably be sufficient. Although James uses the language “living” and “dead” faith, I found that using the concepts of “authentic” and “inauthentic” faith was helpful. This helped frame the argument James makes, that we too can be upset when someone prioritizes belief in God and does not care for people. This is inauthentic because it's hypocritical to focus on the idea that “God is love” when we don't demonstrate that same love to others. It could be a helpful exercise to rephrase James 2:23 in line with its intended meaning, so students don’t get hung up on the words faith, works and justification.

With high school students, you could do a more straightforward teaching, or you could try to use this text as an example to address apparent contradictions in the Bible. Critics say that the Bible is filled with contradictions, so it might be good to teach them that they can use simple reading tools like this to understand not only James 2:23, but also other apparent contradictions that they come across. You might be able to do an in-depth word study on the three keywords in James 2:23, showing how they contrast in usage with Paul’s letters. To do this, I suggest splitting the group to examine what Paul and James say and then allowing students to discuss their intended meaning. For Paul, you could use Galatians 2:16 regarding faith, Ephesians 2:8 regarding works and Romans 5:1–2 regarding justification. They could then write out or rephrase what they see as the intended meaning of James 2:23. For instance, my rephrasing of the text to communicate the intended meaning would be: a person is considered a Christian by their fruit and not intellectual belief alone.

Final Applications

The final step I used with this difficult text was making sure that my message wasn’t too “heady,” but included practical takeaways, especially since James' primary concern seems to be combating purely “intellectual” faith with “authentic” faith, emphasizing the importance of action in the life of a believer.

Two takeaways to apply to youth ministry are: first, we should desire that our students grow to be better readers of the text. Simple reading comprehension tools can be incorporated into your teaching to help clarify misconceptions and cultivate careful reading of Scripture. Second, urge them to examine their hearts to see if they have the “authentic” faith James highlights, asking them to prayerfully consider how God might have them respond, an action-step born out of their faith in Christ. 

James 2:14–26 is a difficult text. During the Reformation, Martin Luther would go so far as to say that the book of James was an “epistle of straw” because he claimed that the letter had nothing to do with the gospel. But, when we carefully read through it and take our time to study its beautiful nuances, the Spirit can lead us to see James not as an epistle of straw but as an epistle of deep edification for the believer, showing how the book of James assures us that "faith alone justifies, but faith that justifies is never alone."  May we help our students to see this truth for themselves.