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Jam 2:14. Τί, what) From ch. Jam 1:22, the apostle has been using exhortation to practice: now he meets the case of those who seek to avoid practice, by sheltering themselves under the pretence of faith. Moreover, St Paul taught to this effect:-Righteousness and salvation are of faith, and not of works. But even then pretended Christians had abused this doctrine, as the perversity of man is accustomed to abuse every thing, and had employed the words of St Paul in a sense opposite to that intended by St Paul. Wherefore James (repeating in this place [Jam 2:23; Jam 2:21; Jam 2:25] the same phrases, testimonies, and examples, which St Paul used, Rom 4:3; Heb 11:17; Heb 11:31) refutes, in Jam 2:24; Jam 2:14, not the doctrine of St Paul, but the error of those who abuse that doctrine,-an error which endeavours to escape notice by sheltering itself behind the words of St Paul. Sometimes the use of expressions which are good in themselves is checked, while many abuse them: comp. Jer 23:33 with Hab 1:1 and Mal 1:1. The character of St Paul, as every one will admit, was very different to that of St James; and some traces of this difference may be perceived in this very chapter: comp. note on Gal 2:9. It must not, however, be supposed that they are at variance with each other, as any one might suppose, who should attach himself either to St Paul or St James, apart from the other. We ought rather to receive, with the greatest reverence and simplicity, without any reserve or wresting of words, the doctrine of each as apostolical, and as proceeding from Christ and His Spirit. They both wrote the truth, and in a suitable manner, but in different ways, as those who had to deal with different kinds of men. Moreover, James himself had maintained the cause of faith on another stage, Act 15:13-21; and subsequently, Paul himself strenuously urged works, especially in the Epistles written at the close of his life, when men were now abusing the doctrine of faith. But now in this instance they both use the same words, though not altogether in the same sense, as we shall presently see. Moreover this short verse is a summary of three divisions. Jam 2:15-17 have reference to What doth it profit? Jam 2:18-19 reply to If any man say. Can faith save him? is explained in Jam 2:20-26. Faith is introduced three times, as being dead without works, viz. at the end of the first part, just before the end of the second, and at the end of the third, in Jam 2:17; Jam 2:20; Jam 2:26.-ἐὰν πίστιν λέγῃ τὶς ἔχειν, if any man say that he hath faith) He does not say, if any man has, but, if any thinks and gives out that he has. St James, therefore, here speaks of faith in the same sense in which St Paul so frequently does, in the sense of a true and living faith; and thus also in Jam 2:22; Jam 2:18 at the end, where he treats of the good man who is under its influence; but afterwards, in this verse, and in the rest of the argument, under the name of faith, in the way of Mimesis[21] [imitation of his supposed opponent’s words], through his love of conciseness, and speaking after the manner of men, he means the faith of the hypocrite, which rests on a fallacy (self-deceit): ch. Jam 1:22. He does not teach, that faith can exist without works, but rather, that faith cannot exist without works. He does not oppose faith and works; but he opposes the empty name of boasted faith, and the faith which is true and firm in itself, and which produces abundant fruit.-ἡ πίστις, that faith) The article has the force of a pronoun,-that which you speak of, and pretend to, that which is called faith: in the same manner, that which liars boast of is called wisdom, ch. Jam 3:15.-αὐτὸν, himself) Such a faith neither confers any advantage on another, nor saves the man himself.
[21] Mimesis is used when we bring forward or allude to the words of another, for the sake of expressing our disapprobation, or for their refutation.