James 2:22
James 2:2222You see that his faith was working with his actions, and his faith was perfected by what he did.
Cited as proof that justifying faith is a faith that has been "completed" by works — the Watchtower reads eteleiōthē as "supplemented and made sufficient." Abraham's faith of , in this reading, was inadequate until the offering of Isaac filled in what was missing. The pastoral effect inside the organisation is to keep faith permanently unfinished — works of preaching, meeting attendance, donations, and baptism into the organisation are presented as the "completing" works this verse demands.
The Greek verb is teleioō — to bring to its intended end, to mature, to display in full expression. A seed is "completed" by becoming a tree, not by becoming a different kind of thing. James's own example proves this: says Abraham "believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Genesis 22 — when Abraham offered Isaac — is fifteen to thirty years later. The faith was real at Genesis 15. Its character was made visible at Genesis 22. The works did not turn dead faith into living faith; they showed that the faith was alive all along. That is exactly what the Reformers meant by living faith working itself out in love ().