16 “Thusly, for God loved the world, so that He gave his only Son, that all those trusting in him might not be destroyed but might have life eternal. (John 3:16 translated from the NA28 Greek text)
26 As indeed for the body without spirit is dead, thusly also the trust without works is dead. (James 2:26 translated from the NA28 Greek text)
There is no more dramatic contrast between two words than those describing what are alive and those describing what are dead. For instance, in James 2:14-26 James describes the difference between living faith (trust), which is saving faith (trust), and dead faith (trust), which does not save….
In v26 the first occurrence of “dead” translates the Greek adjective νεκρόν (nekron), the Nominative, Singular, Neuter case of νεκρός (nekros), which speaks of a dead body or corpse. The second occurrence of “dead” translates the Greek adjective νεκρά (nekra), the Nominative, Singular, Feminine case of νεκρός. What James is describing is a false faith that is as dead as a dead body. The ultimate contrast is to take that which is the state of death compared to the state of eternal life, which our Lord described in John 3:16.
In John 3:16 (above) the word “life” translates the Greek noun ζωὴν (zōēn), the Accusative, Singular, Feminine case of ζωή (zōē), life, lifetime. It is from ζωή that English words such as zoology and protozoa come. The idea is to have life or existence in contrast to death and nonexistence. In the thinking of the ancient Greeks, life was not a thing, but vitality. For that reason, ζωή cannot be used in the plural. In other words, we do not posses several “lifes” like we could posses several books or shoes; rather, life is a singular, vital, and active reality.