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.
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