14 My fellow believers, what would I gain if I said that someone had faith but it didn’t alter how they live their life? Faith like that wouldn’t be able to save them. 15 If a fellow believer is lacking clothes or food, 16 and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace and be warm and satisfied,’ but don’t help with their physical needs, what use would that be? 17 In other words, faith without the corresponding lifestyle is just dead.

18 No doubt someone will say, ‘Well you have the faith and I do the good deeds.’ So show me your faith without good deeds and I’ll demonstrate my faith by my good deeds. 19 You believe that there’s one God and you’re right, but even the demons believe that and shudder. 20 But the vain person still wants to know if faith without good deeds is wasted? 21 Wasn’t our ancestor Avraham considered right with God due to his actions when he offered up his son Yitshak (Isaac) on the altar?[ref] 22 So his faith was working together with his actions, and it was by his actions that his faith was perfected. 23 This fulfilled the scripture that says, ‘Avraham believed in God and so he was consider to be right with God,[ref] and was called a friend of God.’[ref] 24 So you can see that a person is considered right with God due to his actions, and not just by their ‘faith’. 25 Similarly the prostitute Rahav was made right by her actions when she welcomed the Hebrew messengers and then helped them get away by a different route.[ref] 26 Just like a body is dead once the spirit has departed, so too faith is dead if it’s not demonstrated by good deeds.