For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead. No works - and faith is dead. The bottom line of what James is saying here is that what we do demonstrates whether or not faith is really alive within us. We put the cart before the horse. You win, ergo, you're a winner.
Participation is what matters.
It took 24 more years of living. It took the coach bolting up from the mattress three or four times a night with his T-shirt soaked with sweat and his teeth rattling from the fever chill of chemotherapy and the terror of seeing himself die repeatedly in his dreams. Marriages come apart because too often couples only define their marriage by what they do - not who they are. Life becomes empty and hollow. James tells us that there is much more to being a Christian than what we do.