It also says faith without works is dead.
Christ told us without him we can do nothing...Hence if we have a dead faith we can do no works of love for we do not have Christ in us...Faith is alive when we have Christ in our hearts and we can only then do what Christ has prepared for us to do...
Faith without works is dead
Works without faith are empty
A living faith allows us to do the works of love that Christ showed us how to do...but these works are not the instrument of salvation, our faith is.