Sermon Tone Analysis

Vs. 15-17

15 If a brother or sister is poorly clad and lacks food for each day,

16 And one of you says to him, Good-bye!

Keep [yourself] warm and well fed, without giving him the necessities for the body, what good does that do?

17 So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).

vs 15

15 If a brother or sister is poorly clad and lacks food for each day,

James speaks of a brother or a sister being poorly clothed with a lack of food.

He is giving us a view of Faith without works.

James is expounding on what the Barnes Commentary says, The sense is, that faith in itself, without the acts that correspond to it, and to which it would prompt, is as cold, and heartless, and unmeaning, and useless, as it would be to say to one who was destitute of the necessaries of life, depart in peace."

When we look in , we see what no works looks like.

The sense is, that faith in itself, without the acts that correspond to it, and to which it would prompt, is as cold, and heartless, and unmeaning, and useless, as it would be to say to one who was destitute of the necessaries of life, depart in peace."

In vs 16 James is allowing us to see that wishing us well at the point of me suffering does nothing for me..

Luke

16 And one of you says to him, Good-bye!

Keep [yourself] warm and well fed, without giving him the necessities for the body, what good does that do?

Vs. 16

16 And one of you says to him, Good-bye!

Keep [yourself] warm and well fed, without giving him the necessities for the body, what good does that do?

Here we see that at the point of a need, James says one says to him good-bye.

In other words instead of offering some assistance (works, deeds, acts) one give mere words that does not help but in fact hurts.

vs. 17

So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).

So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).

1. faith is of no more value, and has no more evidence of genuineness when it is unaccompanied with good works, than such empty wishes for the welfare of the poor would be when unaccompanied with the means of relieving their wants.

Faith is designed to lead to good works.

It is intended to produce a holy life; a life of activity in the service of the Saviour.

1. faith is of no more value, and has no more evidence of genuineness when it is unaccompanied with good works, than such empty wishes for the welfare of the poor would be when unaccompanied with the means of relieving their wants.

Faith is designed to lead to good works.

It is intended to produce a holy life; a life of activity in the service of the Saviour.

faith is of no more value, and has no more evidence of genuineness when it is unaccompanied with good works, than such empty wishes for the welfare of the poor would be when unaccompanied with the means of relieving their wants.

Faith is designed to lead to good works.

It is intended to produce a holy life; a life of activity in the service of the Saviour.

2) there is a great deal of that kindness and charity in the world which is expressed by mere good wishes.

If we really have not the means of relieving the poor and the needy, then the expression of a kind wish may be in itself an alleviation to their sorrows, for even sympathy in such a case is of value, and it is much to us to know that others feel for us; but if we have the means, and the object is a worthy one, then such expressions are mere mockery, and aggravate rather than soothe the feelings of the sufferer.

Such wishes will neither clothe nor feed them; and they will only make deeper the sorrows which we ought to heal.

there is a great deal of that kindness and charity in the world which is expressed by mere good wishes.

If we really have not the means of relieving the poor and the needy, then the expression of a kind wish may be in itself an alleviation to their sorrows, for even sympathy in such a case is of value, and it is much to us to know that others feel for us; but if we have the means, and the object is a worthy one, then such expressions are mere mockery, and aggravate rather than soothe the feelings of the sufferer.

Such wishes will neither clothe nor feed them; and they will only make deeper the sorrows which we ought to heal.

3 ) in like manner there is much of this same kind of worthless faith in the world - faith that is dead; faith that produces no good works; faith that exerts no practical influence whatever on the life.

The individual professes indeed to believe the truths of the gospel; he may be in the church of Christ; he would esteem it a gross calumny to be spoken of as an infidel; but as to any influence which his faith exerts over him, his life would be the same if he had never heard of the gospel.