James 2:26

Plain English Version

It is like this. If a person’s body doesn’t breathe, it is no good. That person is dead. In the same way, if you say you believe in Jesus, but you don’t do the things God wants you to do, you are no good as a Christian. It is like you are dead.

Cross References

Galatians 5:6

You see, if people belong to Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter if they have a young man operation or not. The only thing that matters is that they trust Jesus, and if they do that, they will love God, and they will love other people.

James 2:14

My Christian friends, it is no good for you to say that you believe in Jesus Christ if you don’t do the things that he wants you to do. If you reckon you believe, but you don’t do the things he wants, you can’t think that God will save you.

James 2:17

So if you reckon that you believe in Jesus Christ, but you don’t do the good things that he wants you to do, I reckon your talk isn’t true. It is useless. It will get you no-where.

James 2:20

If you don’t do the things that Jesus says, it is no good to say that you believe in him. If you don’t know much, and if you want to argue with me, just think about the story of Abraham, our grand-father that lived a long time ago. God told Abraham to give him his son Isaac. To do that, Abraham had to kill Isaac, and burn his body on a table made of stones. Abraham believed that somehow God would make it end up all right, so he started to do that hard thing that God said. He was going to kill Isaac. But just then, God told him to stop. You see, God says this in his book, “Abraham believed what God said, so God was really happy with him, and told him, ‘You believe me, so now I’m saying you are properly good, like you never did anything wrong.’ ” And that is how it happened. In another place it says that Abraham not only believed God, but he also did that hard thing God told him to do, so Abraham was a friend of God.