Now Nicolaitanizers want to then measure these sinners who get saved by believing in Jesus without a lifetime of working to obtain. James gave you pickers at nits a way to do that measuring, but never presume that you can see the inward parts based upon the outward behaviors. ONLY God sees the inward parts. Some take years to be slapped around by their sinning before they sit still long enough to listen to the Holy Spirit God placed in them when they First believed they needed what ONLY God provides in Jesus The Christ.
Can you read the Bible and see God putting His Life in those who simply believed the message on the day of Pentecost or those in the house of Cornelius who had God put His Holy Spirit in them even before Peter finished the sermon?
Would you presume to tell anyone the sin status of any or all of those into whom God placed His spirit in those instances? would you presume to tell us ALL then walked in perfect sinless living for the rest of their days? Of course you would not do that. You know you and I have no powers to look back in time. But God verified that it is ONLY by placing Faith in Jesus as The One God send for the Salvation of souls, by immediately placing His Spirit in them regardless of the faults they had yet to iron out under Holy Spirit leadership. Everyone into whom the Holy Spirit came was that very day born from above never to be unborn from above, because God Promises that exact status for the believer in Christ.
But there is One Who can look back and way forward in Time, and know the end from the beginning. Those He predestinates are those He looks forward in time to see the final outcome of their PROFESSION of FAITHJ in CHRIST as Savior and Lord. You and I can only watch the day to day behaviors and have no access tot he tomorrow behaviors.
James said he would show his saving faith by his works. That's fine, if you could look back and see every behavior James made from the day he first believed his brother was The Christ. He didn't believe it at first, and it was not until after the Resurrected Savior stood before him that he came to believe what he had been told.
For you and me,, well we must use faith to activate our discernment. There is actually a SPiritual Gift of Discernment, given to some, a very few some, that allows the one to know whom is before them in prayer or in person and see whether they are born from above or not. I don't have that gift. Do you? Would you pronounce judgment based upon behaviors, before the ends are reached? God can do it because He sees from the beginning through to the end, and He selects (predestinates) those who will believe in the One He Has Sent.
Since Jesus spread His blood upon the Mercy Seat over top of the laws, there are no law violations which can be legitimately counted against those in God's family by adoption, regardless of what satan accuses.
So an unrepentant murderer who still has hate in his soul is saved. The one lacks the love to forgive others is also save. How do you reconcile this with what Jesus said: "If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions." Or with his declaration that if we are to enter into eternal life we must keep the commandments. You need to stop trying to force that round peg of sola fide into the square whole of Scripture. Sola fide is a manmade tradition that is contrary to Scripture.