en_tn_condensed/jas/02/17.md

faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead

Here, it is implied that "works" refers to things people do because they believe in God, such as obeying God and doing good to others. James speaks of faith as if it were alive if one does good works, and of faith as if it were dead if one does not do good deeds. This can be restated to remove the abstract nouns "faith" and "works." Alternate translation: "a person who says he believes in God but does not do anything, does not really believe in God" or "a person who says he believes in God but does not do anything as a result of his belief, does not really believe in God" (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-explicit or rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-metaphor and rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-abstractnouns)