Faith and works

“In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” James 2:17-18
The epistle of James can be difficult to understand, especially when we try to marry it up with Paul’s teaching concerning salvation by grace alone, and not by works at all. But James is not advocating salvation by works.
What he is pointing out is that good works will automatically follow true faith. A professed faith in Christ that does not produce good works, is not true faith in Christ. Martin Luther once said, “We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.”
Good works are the natural result of our faith in and obedience to Christ. We have now been grafted into Him (Rom. 11:17), and the natural result should be that we begin to bear fruit (John 15:5). An apple tree is known by the apples it produces. But it doesn’t strive and strain to produce them – they happen as a natural result of the tree drawing up nutrients through the roots. But think about it: if an apple tree didn’t produce apples, how would you know that it was an apple tree? Similarly, how are people supposed to see the evidence of our faith in Christ, if we suppress the good works we should be doing?