James 2:25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
The Old Testament records the content of her faith, which was the basis of her justification before God. She demonstrated the reality of her saving faith when, at great personal risk she protected the messengers of God. James did not intend however, for those words to be a commendation of her occupation or her lying. The actions that Rahab took revealed that she had faith in God. She helped the messengers, because her faith in God was greater than her fear of men.The point of this analogy between the body and one’s faith is that both require an energizing element. The absence of that element renders the other component dead. The spiritual body that lives within this body of flesh is the part of us that will live on. When the spirit leaves the body, the life is gone. Faith that is not acted upon is like this empty shell of the body. Faith is not real, until the actions show the faith of the person.