Matthew 7:26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. Putting them into practice is the deeds that demonstrate faith.
Recognising Jesus and believing in Him is the first step. Then by wilfully transforming your character and performing deeds in His name is the second step and these twin duties are inseparable, neither is acceptable without the other. Faith in Christ must be accompanied by personal transformation and service to humanity.
James 2:18/19 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 my deeds.
James was the brother of Christ, he spent most of his life with Jesus. If there was any error in his understanding of the twin duties of faith and deeds Jesus would have corrected him.
Paul was predominantly teaching Gentiles who had little concept of Christian faith being conjoined to deeds so Paul was trying to instil faith as a step 1 in the hope that it would lead to an understanding that Christian does not exist unless it leads to a personal transformation, born again that then leads to service to humanity.
