What Does it Profit?

James 2:14    Santiago 2:14
    "Hermanos míos, ¿de qué aprovechará si alguno dice que tiene fe, y no tiene obras? ¿Podrá la fe salvarle?" RV1960
    "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?" NKJV

    This verse is kind of a hard pill for me to swallow. We are taught, as one of our church doctrines that there is justification by faith. Why then does James ask a rhetorical question, that in context seems to imply a definite no, faith cannot save him? But then we are also told in other parts of the bible that the unfruitful branches will be cut off.
    It seems to me that the result of a true personal relationship with the God and savoir of the world has only one outcome--and that is works. If you have no works then your faith is dead because the Spirit has been ignored and the relationship is either cold or non-existent. But if the relationship is alive, believe me, you will always be convicted of one area in your life and there should always be a struggle to improve one’s relationship with God by obeying the promptings of the Holy Spirit--works.
    So what profit is faith without works? It profits no one. It does not profit God, who is given a representative who makes His name look bad. It does not profit man, for there is no effort to love thy neighbor. And, perhaps worst of all, it does not profit the man with faith and no works. For he then remains in a dying state, thinking himself righteous while in reality has no true communion with the Holy Spirit.
    So what does this mean practically for me?
    I need to make sure that my own relationship with the Father does not falter, like it has been this past week. I need to be more diligent in prayer and in the reading of my bible, all other pass times in the morning and at night come second.