The Mark of Fake Faith—Unchanged Life

A little news: Barbara and I are headed north to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN in a short while. No concerns as far as I know. It is Barb's six-month checkup since her liver transplant last November. She is doing really well as far as her liver is concerned. The compression fracture in her back is healed. Her fractured lower left leg is healing nicely. Dealing with buldging discs in her back now. Keep her in your prayers. Thanks.

Now for today's Bible Insight: James 2:14-26 contains a vigorous call for us to put our faith to work. According to James, faith has a job! When faith gives evidence of itself only in words without action, it is a phony Christianity. James vigorously challenges that kind of lifeless Christianity and summons his readers to experience the reality of genuine faith.

In this passage, James returns to the basic principle of James 1:22-25: “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”

The basic principle is simple: hearing must be accompanied by doing. Faith in action is the definition of true Christianity. And that kind of Christianity is anything but lifeless. So James 2:14-26 calls for faith that is accompanied by action.

For James, the Lord’s brother, there is no room for a phony Christianity where so-called believers give mere mental assent to the truth, taking no action on what they say they believe. His message to them: “Take action! Be busy with helping your brothers in Christ however you can.”

So what is genuine faith? It is acting on what you say you believe. It is being “an effectual doer” of the Word, as James put it (James 1:25b). That statement gives meaning to an otherwise vague term—“faith.” Although we may say, “I have faith,” that phrase may be no more than wishful thinking. We hope that everything will turn out for the best since we claim to believe. But James is far too practical and far too concerned for our true salvation to let us think that way. So he sets the record straight.

James 2:14-26 gives a clear description of faith. The crux of the matter has to do with how we live. Do we live as Christians ought to live? Here faith is clearly defined by noting the difference between fake faith and genuine saving faith. The mark of fake faith is an unchanged life.

“What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?” (v. 14). A very pointed couple of questions. This passage is quite feisty, but it is also quite challenging. James has something to say and he is going to make sure we hear it.

Both questions are rhetorical. In the Greek language, questions can be formed in two ways: one question expects a positive response, while the other expects a negative response. In both cases in verse 14, the expected response from the questions is negative.

“What good is it?” (v. 14a, NIV). It is no good! Here is a person who professes his belief and has given an orthodox account of his faith in Christ. The problem is, this spoken testimony has left something unsaid: he has no works. His claim to faith is not supported by any concrete evidence in his life. That is why James says that this man “claims to have faith” (v. 14). It is only a claim—intellectual assent to the truth. But his claim is not supported by a changed life—a life that evidences faith.

This brings us back to that first question, “What good is it?” (v. 14a). It's like asking, what good is it to have a driver's license if you don't drive? Or what good is it to be an actor if you don't act? Or how can you say you are a parent, if you don't do the work of a parent? It doesn’t add up. Your life, your actions, tell something quite different.

Then James asks a second question: Can that faith save him?” (v. 14b). The answer—no! We are justified by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone. Genuine faith is accompanied by deeds. Some wonder if this contradicts what the apostle Paul said in Romans 3:28, “a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.”

In Romans 3:23, Paul reminds us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Nothing we can do—no work or activity—can bring us into a right relationship with God. Man is declared righteous by God's grace alone, not by earning it through any type of good deeds. This is reaffirmed in all of Paul's writings and is woven into the very fabric of the entire Bible.

But James is not talking about works as a means of salvation in verse 14. He is talking about works as a proof of faith. Faith that does not prove itself in actions is not genuine faith—it's superficial! Paul is looking at the root of our salvation in Romans 3:28. James is looking at the fruit of our salvation here in verse 14.

James is calling for us to live the changed life according to Ephesians 2:10—“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” You are saved by grace through faith, but such saving faith always results in a changed life. An unchanged life only confirms a fake faith.

If you have not yet trusted Christ for your salvation, now is the time. Pray right now and ask Jesus to forgive your sins and come into your life. Then let Him change you. All who trust Christ for salvation must also let Him be Lord and have contol of your life. Live a changed life in service to others, and so prove your faith to be a genuine saving faith. Amen.

Explosive Fellowship, Part II

Let's pick up where we left off last time—with our hope in God: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:23). If you recall, that hope is made visible by the effect it has on your life and the effect it has on others through you. That effect is given in verse 24 and is what fellowship is all about. In fact, as I said, verse 24 defines koinonia: “Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.”

The word “consider” is hard to translate into English. “Let us consider…” is used one other time in Hebrews. In Hebrews 3:1, the writer says, “Consider Jesus.” In other words, look at Him; think about Him; focus on Him; study Him; let your mind be occupied with Him; get to know Him. “Jesus” is the direct object of the verb “consider.” Consider what? Consider Jesus!

In Hebrews 10:24 the grammar is the same: the direct object of the verb “consider” is “one another.” Literally, the text says, “Consider… one another,” just as most translations render it. Consider what? Consider one another! Look at your brother in Christ; think about him; focus on him; study him; let your mind be occupied with him; get to know him, and then you can be used by God to “stir up” in him “love and good works” (v. 24).

This is the only place in Hebrews where you will find the expression “one another” (vs. 24-25). We are to stir up each other in our walk of faith. It’s not a picture of a leader directing everyone else in what they are to do. We are all involved. We are all to “consider one another” and “to stir up love and good works” (v. 24) in each other.

This is what koinonia—dynamic, explosive fellowship—is all about; stimulating each other to love one another with the love of Christ and to do the good works “God prepared beforehand” for you to do (Eph. 2:10). Notice that this is not what you might expect. It is not: “consider how to love each other and do good deeds.” That would be Biblical and right. We should certainly do that, but this is different: “Consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds” (Heb. 10:24, NASB).

The focus is on helping others to become loving people. We are to stir up others to do good works. Of course, the implication is that if others need help and stirring, we do too! This kind of dynamic, explosive fellowship cuts both ways. We look for ways to stir up others, just as they look for ways to stir us up to love and good works. The aim of Christian fellowship isn’t just loving and doing good works, but helping to stir up others to love and good works.

Just as verse 24 gives the focus and aim of Christian fellowship, so verse 25 gives the “how to.” It explains how to go about living such a dynamic, explosive fellowship. It gives us very specific instructions: “not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (v. 25). It gives two directions: First, do not neglect to gather together or assemble, and second, encourage one another.

As for the first instruction, to assemble refers to more than just coming to the worship service to hear the Word preached. That is an important part of this assembling together, but there is more to it than that. Note the second instruction, “encouraging one another.” In this context, the kind of assembling together in view seems to be one where the members are encouraging each other. The “one another” implies that there is something mutual going on. One is encouraging another and another is encouraging one. Get the picture? Everyone is doing or saying something that encourages.

As for the second instruction, “encouraging one another,” both the New Testament, and especially the book of Hebrews, calls us again and again to a kind of mutual ministry that involves all believers encouraging others. So we come together for worship and to hear the Word preached on Sunday mornings. We come together in Sunday school to be taught and to discuss the Word together. We come together on Sunday evenings to study the Word and to encourage each other. We come together on Wednesday nights to pray together. It was through prayer that Peter was rescued from his chains and restored to the fellowship (Acts 12:12).

The early church encouraged each other in love and they experienced a fellowship that was dynamic. They experienced an explosive fellowship. That is why every opportunity to join together in fellowship should be explored and taken advantage of. Fellowship meals are great for encouraging one another. Men’s breakfasts and women’s luncheons are also opportunities to encourage one another. The same is true for church Bible conferences and coming together for special holidays, such as a New Year’s Eve fellowship time and communion service.

Biblically, the key to encouraging others to love and good works is given in verse 23: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” The key to love in the New Testament—the kind of love that magnifies God and not man—is hope rooted in the faithfulness of God. Embrace your hope! Cherish your hope! God is faithful. He keeps his promises.

Without this kind of hope sustaining you day by day through all the disheartening frustrations and crushing disappointments, you would not have any strength, or energy, or joy to stir up anybody to love and good works. But if you bank on God, not yourself, if you hold fast your confession of hope in Him, you always have something encouraging and hope-giving to say—namely, that God can be trusted.

Take advantage of every opportunity. Be there for your fellow saints, and let God use you to stimulate them to love and good works. Be there for each other, and let God use you to encourage one another, “and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (v. 25b). Jesus is coming soon! Do not neglect the assembling together of the saints. Fellowship takes place in the assembly. God has called us to experience dynamic, explosive fellowship, which can only happen when we come together for all the right reasons. Amen.

Explosive Fellowship, Part I

I begin today with a biblical story. James, the brother of John and a son of Zebedee, had been “put to death with a sword” (Acts 12:2), probably a reference to his being beheaded. Peter was left in prison, most likely awaiting a similar fate. You can find this story in Acts 12:1-17.

In this story, we see a fellowship that can best be described as explosive! Fellowship in the early church was not simply something that was warm and fuzzy. Life is too short, the world around us too evil, and the people outside too broken and hopeless for us to settle for the kind of fellowship that is nothing more than a comfortable togetherness with no transforming, empowering, explosive effect when we meet. In the early church, fellowship was anything but unfruitful and ineffective.

Acts 2:42 introduces us to the dynamic of the early church: “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” They were living the faith! They were sitting under the preaching and teaching of the Word, getting to know the Word well. They worshiped together, even sharing in the Lord’s supper. And they prayed together. They were devoted to “fellowship” (the Greek, koinonia).

Koinonia occurs 20 times in the Bible, the first in Acts 2:42. It means “fellowship, sharing in common, communion.” Christian fellowship is a key aspect of the Christian life. Believers in Christ are to come together in love, faith, and encouragement. That is the essence of koinonia. The result is a dynamic in the church that is explosive!

That explosive dynamic is what we see in our story in Acts 12. Verse 5 tells us what the church was doing: “So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.” Notice that it seems to be the whole church that was praying for Peter. We know from Acts 4:4 that by this time there were well over 5,000 men (not to mention women and children) who were part of the church in Jerusalem. So how was this prayer happening?

They may have called an all-church prayer meeting in the city. We don't know. But what we do know for sure, is that the house-group network in Jerusalem was on fire for Peter! Verses 6–11 describe the amazing answer to prayer as Peter is saved from prison by an angel. Then look at verse 12: “And when he realized this [that he had been delivered], he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.”

It says “many…were praying.” But many is not 5,000, because they are all in one house. There may be 40, 50, or 60 according to what archeology shows us about the size of nice houses in Jerusalem in the first century. So when verse 5 says that “the church” was praying, does that mean just these 50 or 60 people? No! It means the whole church in Jerusalem was praying—all five or ten thousand of them! The loss of James and Peter would have been devastating—so the whole church was praying, but it was praying in its house groups all over the city. And the power of those groups praying all over the city, exploded the doors off the hinges of Herod's prison!

We are talking about ordinary, every day Christians who meet together with such expectancy and fervency of prayer that the Spirit is poured out and people are added to the church daily, the witness is bold, missionaries are called and sent, and prison doors are opened. This is the definition of koinonia. This is true Christian fellowship—explosive Christian fellowship—the way it was happening in the early church when leaders were being executed. My prayer is that we will not be so at home in the world—so content with business as usual—that God has to bring persecution in order to create an explosive fellowship in our church.

Christian fellowship (koinonia) enables us to explode with more love, more compassion, more joy, more holiness, more zeal for God, more boldness in witness, more power in ministry, and more vision for missions. When “you love one another, even as (Jesus has) loved you” (John 13:34), you will experience this kind of explosive, dynamic fellowship.

Hebrews 10:23-25 tells us what we must do to experience this explosive, dynamic fellowship. The context has to do with faith. We are commanded to “draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22). When we draw near to God in faith, we begin experiencing that dynamic, explosive fellowship. Being faithful begins with holding fast your hope in Christ. As verse 23 says: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”

In the King James Version, verse 23 reads, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.” However, the best Greek manuscripts of this text have the word “hope,” rather than “faith,” though faith is truly involved. When one trusts in Christ by faith, he cannot help but be hopeful. There is no such thing as a believer without hope. To hope in Christ is to put yoour faith in Him. A believer without hope is a contradiction in terms. So, while “hope” is probably the correct translation, either way the picture is the same. To “hold fast the confession of our hope” is to “hold fast the profession of our faith.”

“Hope” is expectant and certain. It anticipates that God will fulfill His promises. We can “hold fast” to our hope, because behind it is a God in whom we have full confidence. We can count on Him, because “He who promised is faithful” (v. 23c).

To “hold fast,” also means to “retain a firm grasp” (Frank E. Gaebelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 12, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 104). So, not only are we to “hold fast the confession of our hope,” but we are to do so “without wavering” (v. 23b). James 1:6b says, “He who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.” That is what it means to waver. It means to be tossed this way and that because of doubt, never knowing what to believe. But we are to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.” We are to “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess” (NIV).

This is not done where anyone can see. This is an affair of the heart. Embrace your hope. Hold fast to your hope. Be a hope-filled person. Hope in God, because He has made promises to you, and He is faithful. He has promised to write the law on your heart and put it in your mind (Heb. 10:16); He has promised to work in you “what is well pleasing in His sight” (Heb. 13:21); He has promised to remember your sins no more (Heb. 10:17); He has promised that we will be perfected for all time by a single sacrifice (Heb. 10:14); He has promised never to leave us or forsake us (Heb. 13:5); and He has promised to bring good from all our pain (Heb. 12:10). And the Lord keeps His promises!

Without some effect on your life, hope in God would be invisible. It would bring no public glory to God's power, wisdom, goodness and trustworthiness. If the act of hoping in God were all that he created you for, then verse 24 would be wasted words. But they are not. God created you first, to hope in Him, and then, to make that hope visible by the effect that it has on your life, and through you, the effect it has on others That effect is given in verse 24, and it is what fellowship is all about. In fact, verse 24 defines koinonia: “Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.” Amen.

Forever Faithful!

Well-known missionary to China, J. Hudson Taylor once said: "A little thing is a little thing, but faithfulness in a little thing is a great thing." (Robert J. Morgan, Nelson's Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, & Quotes, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 293)

The same publication noted this: "One of the most tragic events during the Reagan presidency was the Sunday morning terrorist bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, in which hundreds of Americans were killed or wounded as they slept. Many of us can still recall the terrible scenes as the dazed survivors worked to dig out their trapped brothers from beneath the rubble.

"A few days later an extraordinary event took place. Marine Corps Commandant Paul Kelly visited some of the wounded survivors then in a Frankfurt, Germany hospital. Among them was Corporal Jeffrey Lee Nashton, severely wounded in the incident. Nashton had so many tubes running in and out of his body that it was said he looked more like a machine than a man, yet he survived.

"As Kelly neared him, Nashton, struggling to move and racked with pain, motioned for a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote a brief note and passed it back to the Commandant. On the slip of paper were but two words—"Semper Fi"—the Latin motto of the Marines meaning "forever faithful." With those two simple words Nashton spoke for the millions of Americans who have sacrificed body and limb and their lives for their country—those who have remained faithful." (Ibid)

In John 15:12 Jesus told His disciples, "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." And in verse 13 he added, "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." How much did Jesus love us? He loved us enough to lay down His life for us on the cross. He was faithful to those He loved, paying the penalty of sin on our behalf so that we would not suffer eternal death, or eternal separation from God. He died to set us free!

That is what independence Day is about—freedom. We celebrate our nation's independence and freeom that was sercured by faithfful people who laid down their lives for their friends. Brave and faithful soldiers died to set us free, much like Jesus did to secure our ultimate freedom from sin.

A faithful friend never fails to do whatever may be required to help the people he loves, just as Jesus did, even when that means giving his very life. That is the faithfulness that has defined not only the Marines, but service men and women in all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces throughout the history of this great nation.

In a very moving letter, Abraham Lincoln expressed the respect and consolation of a nation and his own compassion to Mrs. Bixby, who lost five sons in combat during the Civil War. Mr. Lincoln's letter expressed the compassion that he felt with the honor due the fallen soldiers: "Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files….that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. A. Lincoln" (usmemorialday.com)

Being "Forever Faithful" begins with being faithful to love God. Again John 15:12 says, "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." That last phrase, "just as I have loved you" is the key. It is God who first love us. Our love for each other is a reflection of His love for us and flows from our love for God. 1 John 4:19 says, "We love, because He first loved us." God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us. That great gift, the gift of His Son, leads us to love God in return and to put Him first in all things. So being "Forever Faithful" means being faithful to love God above all else.

In Matthew 22:37-38, quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, Jesus said, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment." Before we can truly love anyone else we must first love God with our whole being (our heart, our soul, and our mind!). And if you love God with all you are, your life will show it, first by living rightly before Him, then by attending church and worshiping with fellow believers, and also by loving one another. And that brings us to a second way of being faithful.

Being "Forever Faithful" also involves loving one another. Look again at John 15:12-13. "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." When you are faithful to love God, you will be faithful to love your brothers in Christ. The two always go hand in hand. That is why, when Jesus gave us the greatest commandment, to love God above all else, He immediately added, "The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself' (quoting Leviticus 19:18).

In fact, John 13:34-35 says the same thing: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." Your love for one another proves your love for God. And did you catch the standard? "Even as I have loved you," or as our text in John 15:12 said, "Just as I have loved you." Be faithful to love one another, just as Jesus loved you.

Jesus died for you, to set you free. So you should be willing to do anything for your brothers in Christ, even to die for them if necessary. We can’t die for their sin. Jesus has already done that for us. But we can give all we have to take care of them and to protect them. And that is what so many of our service men and women did for us. They gave the ultimate sacrifice for our good will, for our freedom to worship, and for our freedom to gather together and celebrate. Remember and be thankful for the love of your brothers. Follow their example. Be faithful to love God and be faithful to love one another. Amen.