Study of James week 5
Notes
Transcript
Faith and Works - James wk 5
Faith and Works - James wk 5
The last time we meet to study in James we talked about favoritism and how we are not to show favoritism.
That is whether it be too rich or poor, black or white, young or old, or just not including one person.
We have to love our neighbors as ourselves is what we are commanded to do.
These neighbors are all people all around the world.
Tonight we are going to look at the second half of chapter 2.
James starts to talk about faith in these verses and he is talking about faith that works.
14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
Here in verse 14 James addresses this section to people who have exercised genuine faith.
The issue in this section is faith without works versus faith accompanied by works.
Genuine faith will naturally produce good works; the two complement each other.
When someone truly believes in a cause, that belief will change the way that person lives.
We look back at the first 13 verse and James was speaking on Favoritism and love.
We are to love others, so we claim faith when we show our faith through our love for others.
15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?
Here James gives an example of work that our faith should produce.
Much like the poor man that visited the church in the first 13 verses, now is the brother or sister who is lacking food and clothing.
There is people and sometimes right in our local church that lack the necessities of daily life. Sometimes they are overlooked.
What James was getting at is that we encounter people that are in need of things, when we encounter people in need we should help those people out.
17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?
18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.
If we have what a needy person needs we should help that person out, God has called us to love our neighbors and helping others out is part of that love.
We need to do more than say we love, this even goes with our spouses and children and everyone.
We need to show people by our actions that we love them.
People want to know how much we care before they care how much we know.
The poor need more than mere words; so does the believer who needs the saving act and wisdom of God.
A word of blessing without an act of blessing is like the promise of salvation without the saving act of God in Christ.
At the end of verse 16 James returns to the question he asked in verse 14 what does it profit?
If we say that we love someone but never show them that we love them what is the point of saying it.
If we say we have faith but never act upon that faith then do we really have faith?
17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
Faith without action is dead.
James was not suggesting that works resulted in salvation.
He was calling for Christians to do what living faith naturally does; show care and concern for those in need.
Many Scriptures show Christians and churches in action meeting needs.
This type of loving, caring interest in others made early Christians distinctive.
Likewise, today people who show loving, caring interest in others stand out as visible representatives of Jesus Christ.
We need to live out our faith in our daily lives.
There is more to Christianity than just coming to church, James was telling the people that it was time to get out of the pew and be a Christian.
The people, like a lot of people today, had claimed to be Christians but they were not acting like Christians.
They were not living out their faith in their daily lives.
18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
Verses 14-17 warns that faith without works represents an empty claim.
Beginning here in verse 18, we are warned against a faith which merely accepts a creed.
Here are the limitation of mere intellectual faith.
Saving faith involves a commitment to Jesus Christ which produces works or deeds.
James ties this all in with chapter 1 verse 22.
22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
Verse 18 represents a dialog with an imaginary opponent.
One may say he has faith though he have not works.
Suppose one were to say to a naked brother, be warmed, without giving him needful clothing.
James says show me thy faith without thy works, if you can; but you cannot show it, that is, manifest or give evidence of your faith without works.
Show here does not mean to prove to me, but to exhibit to me thy faith.
James is saying real faith show itself in works.
You simply cannot find an example of real faith that does not show itself in works.
Genuine commitment to Jesus Christ is demonstrates its presences by works.
Faith produces works.
You cannot have one without the other.
20 “So then, you will know them by their fruits.
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
Here Jesus is teaching on false prophets, but also tells us we will know other believers by their fruit that they produce.
Our faith should produce works or fruit.
These works should be good fruit.
19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
James stated that the people’s faith was no more than that they believed in one God.
The profession of one God is good as far as it goes, but it does not go far at all.
James states that even the demons believe that there is one God.
Though the only effect on the demons is that they shudder at the thought of God’s existence and His power over them.
The behavior of demons demonstrate that someone can believe the right thing and still have an evil character.
Believers should be doing more than shuddering, just as they should be doing more than merely professing belief.
A person must believe in God to be a Christian, but not everyone who acknowledges the existence of God has made a commitment to Jesus Christ.
Demons believe in God but they do not love him.
Their kind of belief does not lead to love, submission, and obedience; instead it leads to hatred, rebellion, and disobedience.
20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
Here James appeals to us t become learners. We can rephrase the question as: are you willing to be taught that a barren faith is worthless?
James calls the person that separates faith and works foolish, meaning empty-headed.
James is now going to give us some examples of faith in the follow verses.
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
Abraham demonstrated his faith in God by his willingness to offer his son Isaac up for a sacrifice.
We prove to others our genuine faith in Christ through our works.
That is exactly what James was telling the people with the example of Abraham.
Abraham showed that he had genuine faith in God by taking Isaac up the mountain and placing him on the altar.
22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
James says see the truth about Abraham’s deed: his faith was made complete by his actions, or literally, his faith works.
James wanted it known that without action faith cannot be complete.
Abraham’s faith and his actions were working together.
Abraham’s faith prompted his obedience. it prodded him on to do good works.
Abraham’s faith was made complete by what he did.
His obedience demonstrated the integrity of his faith.
His willingness to sacrifice Isaac vividly demonstrated the existence of true faith.
Faith produces works; and works makes faith perfect, meaning mature or complete.
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.
In this verse James quotes Genesis 15:6, this verse was also quoted by Paul in Romans 4:3.
Abraham’s obedience showed he was a righteous man.
God declared Abraham righteous as a matter of grace.
Abraham showed the reality of this righteousness by his actions in Genesis 22.
As a result of this obedience, God drew Abraham into a closer fellowship with him and called him God’s friend.
24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
Verse 24 presents the conclusion about Abraham.
Abraham had shown the reality of his faith by his willingness to offer Isaac in obedience to God’s command.
We are made right in God’s sight through a faith which produces works.
This does not claim that God justifies his people by our deeds.
The Bible insists that saving faith must show itself by visible commitment to the Lord and compassion for others.
Faith alone will bring salvation to anyone, but saving faith does not come alone.
It is accompanied by works which show the genuineness of faith.
25 In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
This section turns to the example of good works from the life of Rahab.
Abraham was a man of prominent position and exemplary character.
Rahab came from a background of degradation and insignificance.
James insisted that these contrasting personalities showed deeds which demonstrated their righteousness.
Rahab received into her home Israelites whom Joshua sent to spy out the city of Jericho.
She hid them in her home and protected them from their pursuers.
She deliberately misled the pursuers by sending them off in a different direction while she continued to hide the spies.
Later she guided the spies in making their escape.
If residents - especially the rulers - of Jericho had known of her acts of disloyalty, they would likely have put her to death.
Joshua 2:8-13 makes it clear that Rahab’s faith in Israel God caused her to protect his representatives.
26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
In Genesis 2:7, God formed the first human being by breathing life into his body.
The union of spirit and body produced a living human being.
In death the spirit returns to God, and the body decays into dust.
A body without the spirit is a corpse.
In the same way faith without works is also dead.
A person claiming to have faith but lacking works is spiritually as lifeless as a corpse.
An inactive faith, entombed in a creed affirmed by the intellect, has no more usefulness than a body with no heartbeat or breath.
God wants his people to demonstrate pur religion by overcoming the practice of partiality and by caring out deeds of compassion.