James uses this question to introduce the next part of his teaching. Alternate translation: "Listen to me, foolish man, and I will show that faith without works is useless." (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-rquestion]])
Here, it is implied that "works" refers to things people do because they believe in God, such as obeying God and doing good to others. This can be restated to remove the abstract nouns "faith" and "works." Alternate translation: "that if you do not do anything, then it is useless for you to say that you believe in God" or "that if you do not do anything as a result of your belief, then it is useless for you to say that you believe in God" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-explicit]] and [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-abstractnouns]])
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