You are still suggesting that his focus was misplaced. Perhaps James' focused on something different than you expected because of he was inspired when he wrote.
Seven
It is wonderment.
Paul’s words trump Jesus’ words.
James is wrong or misguided or something. Say, I wonder if some will say that James is less important than, say Paul, or any other passages of the Bible.
Instructions from Christ to do things are changed into the identification of the elect, with the understanding that we are not to do things.
May God give me the strength, the wisdom and the perseverence in order to meet the challenges that He has given to me.
What James wrote focused upon the evidence of 'faithe' in action as necessary to the assurance of the 'faither' that the love of Christ abides in him/her. The mistake some make is to think they can do the good works and God will count it for them righteousness (one of the flaws in Mormonism doctirne). Abraham was being tested regarding the object of his 'faithe' (for Abraham's sake, not for God's sake) and he passed the test with flying colors as evidenced by the 'works' manifested in first spoken words then exercise of his faithing in God's promises.
By bringing into discussion the conflict between James's and Paul's assertions we dig deeper in the srciptures to see a more 'meaty' life in Christ. When the folks of my son's church gathered up things and trucked them down to the survivors of Katrina, they were working out of the love that the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit generates ... their works were not so God would impute righteousness to them, they did what they did because the love of Christ, Christ's love, dwells in them and flows out through them. Abraham's deeds didn't get righteousness imputed to him, his 'faithing' in God's promises did. James is slightly out of focus because he focuses upon the final deed rather than the 'faithing' which results in the deed.