Still addressing the imaginary objector, James next goes on to show that faith is inseparably linked with works. They form a single quality; one cannot be present without the other.

You see: the Greek verb is in the singular, indicating that James has his opponent in mind. Functionally You see can be used as a marker for drawing a conclusion, in this instance answering the question “Do you want to be shown…?” in verse 20. James tries to turn his objector from his cold belief. He asserts that Abraham’s faith was active along with his works. From verse 20 we may get the impression that James is only interested in Abraham’s works, but this verse indicates that he has assumed Abraham’s faith all along. He begins with Abraham’s works, because it is this aspect of Abraham’s life that he wants to focus on. Abraham was willing to go to such an extent to obey the will of God that some power must have been active within him. This power is faith which, however, was active along with his works. The verb was active is literally “was working with.” It is in the imperfect with the sense of a continuous and ongoing activity. Here we can observe an interesting wordplay: “faith was working with his works.” This faith is an active faith, a constant working partner with works. This can be brought out in various ways; for example, “his faith and actions worked together” (Good News Translation; so also Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), “faith was at work in his actions” (New English Bible, Revised English Bible), “Faith co-operated with deeds” (Moffatt). We may also express this as “Can’t you see [or, understand]? Because he believed God he had to act [or, do something],” or “… belief in God required actions.”

And faith was completed by works: this is the second half of the statement. In Greek the word order of this clause is different: “by works was faith made perfect” (King James Version). From this we can readily see that the two halves of the statement have a chiastic structure: “faith … works … works … faith.” This structure can be maintained in translation; for example, “faith was constantly working with his works, and by works was the faith brought to perfection” (similarly Luther 1984, King James Version, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). The verb was completed can mean “was brought to completion,” “was brought to maturity,” “was brought to perfection,” “was brought to its intended goal [or, end].” In some languages faith was completed … may be rendered as “he [Abraham] really believed God.” Contemporary English Version translates this final sentence as “He proved that his faith was real by what he did.” Another way of expressing this is “Because of what he did [his actions] he proved that he really believed God.”

The two halves of this verse explain that faith and works are interrelated; the faith of Abraham worked together with his works; his works brought his faith to the intended goal.

Quoted with permission from Loh, I-Jin and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from James. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .