Verse 14— What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? Salvation all desire to secure. The conditions upon which it is suspended were known to the brethren addressed. James treats them as though they had for a time forgotten these conditions, or, at least, were allowing, by their negligence, the teaching they had received, and by which they had become Christians, slowly to escape from memory. To recall them to a full realization of their situation, two important interrogatories are by him propounded: (1) What profit has faith without works? (2) Can faith— that is, faith alone— save him? To the answer to these questions and their full devel­opment the apostle devotes himself in the verses succeeding.