2Cor 4:9, Jehova Adonai, The Lord Is My Friend

"There are many enemies, but we are never without a Friend;

and though badly hurt at times, we are not destroyed.

Isa 41:8-10

"But you, O Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen,

you descendants of Abraham My friend, I took you from the

ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you.

I said, 'You are my servant'; I have chosen you and have

not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do

not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen

you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous

right hand".

James 2:23-24 "And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham

believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,"

and he was called God's friend. You see that a person

is justified by what he does and not by faith alone".

Matthew Henry Commentary

1. When Paul says that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds

of the law (Rom. 3:28), he plainly speaks of another sort of work

than James does, but not of another sort of faith. Paul speaks of

works wrought in obedience to the law of Moses, and before men's

embracing the faith of the gospel; and he had to deal with those

who valued themselves so highly upon those works that they

rejected the gospel (as Rom. 10, at the beginning most expressly

declares); but James speaks of works done in obedience to the

gospel, and as the proper and necessary effects and fruits of

sound believing in Christ Jesus. Both are concerned to magnify

the faith of the gospel, as that which alone could save us and

justify us; but Paul magnifies it by showing the insufficiency

of any works of the law before faith, or in opposition to the

doctrine of justification by Jesus Christ; James magnifies the

same faith, by showing what are the genuine and necessary products

and operations of it.

2. Paul not only speaks of different works from those insisted

on by James, but he speaks of a quite different use that was

made of good works from what is here urged and intended. Paul

had to do with those who depended on the merit of their works

in the sight of God, and thus he might well make them of no

manner of account. James had to do with those who cried up

faith, but would not allow works to be used even as evidence;

they depended upon a bare profession, as sufficient to justify

them; and with these he might well urge the necessity and vast

importance of good works. As we must not break one table of

the law, by dashing it against the other, so neither must we

break in pieces the law and the gospel, by making them clash

with one another: those who cry up the gospel so as to set

aside the law, and those who cry up the law so as to set

aside the gospel, are both in the wrong; for we must take

our work before us; there must be both faith in Jesus Christ

and good works the fruit of faith.

3. The justification of which Paul speaks is different

from that spoken of by James; the one speaks of our

persons being justified before God, the other speaks

of our faith being justified before men: "Show me your

faith by your works," says James, "let your faith be

justified in the eyes of those that behold your by your

works;" but Paul speaks of justification in the sight of

God, Who justifies those only that believe in Jesus, and

purely on account of the redemption that is in Him. Thus

we see that our persons are justified before God by faith,

but our faith is justified before men by works. This is

so plainly the scope and design of the apostle James that

he is but confirming what Paul, in other places, says of

his faith, that it is a laborious faith, and a faith

working by love, (Gal. 5:6; 1 Thes. 1:3; Titus 3:8); and

many other places.

4. Paul may be understood as speaking of that justification

which is inchoate, James of that which is complete; it is

by faith only that we are put into a justified state, but

then good works come in for the completing of our faith.