John Calvin Commentary James 2:15

"If a brother or sister be naked and in lack of daily food," — James 2:15 (ASV)

If a brother, or, For if a brother. He takes an example from what was connected with his subject, for he had been exhorting them to exercise the duties of love. If anyone, on the contrary, boasted that he was satisfied with faith without works, he compares this shadowy faith to the saying of one who tells a famished man to be filled without supplying him with the food he lacks. Just as, then, the one who sends away a poor man with words, and offers him no help, mocks him, so those who devise for themselves faith without works, and without any of the duties of religion, trifle with God.