en_tn_condensed/jas/02/17.md

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

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 God, but does not do what God commands, does not really believe God" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metaphor and rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-abstractnouns)