Balancing Grace and Works

Our second reading today is from the letter of James. It’s a letter written by James to all God’s people, scattered across the whole world. Although we know it was written by someone called James, because he puts his name in the letter, there were several James’s in the bible and its interesting, at least a bit, to think which James wrote the letter.

Our second reading today is from the letter of James. It’s a letter written by James to all God’s people, scattered across the whole world. Although we know it was written by someone called James, because he puts his name in the letter, there were several James’s in the bible and its interesting, at least a bit, to think which James wrote the letter.

The James most commonly referred to in the bible is James the son of Zebedee, the brother of John. He was a fisherman. It’s this James who, with John and Simon Peter, seem to form a kind of inner circle of the disciples. But it’s probably not James the brother of John who wrote this letter. We know that he was the first of the disciples to be killed by the authorities, only a few years after Jesus.

A much more likely author than James the brother of John is James the brother of Jesus himself, who was a leader in the early church. James the brother of Jesus was an interesting character, because there is virtually no mention of him in the gospels. He played no part in Jesus earthly ministry, doesn’t seem to have been a follower of his brother, and wasn’t a disciple.

But something seems to have changed after Jesus resurrection. Paul tells us that the risen Jesus appeared to James, and James is now a changed man and becomes an important man in the early church. Eventually he becomes the leader of the church in Jerusalem. He is mentioned several times in the Acts of the Apostles.

James was remembered as James ‘the just’ because of his righteousness and was rumoured to have knees like a camel, because of the amount of time he spent on them in prayer. And, eventually James was martyred himself, probably by being thrown from the roof of the temple in Jerusalem and then when he didn’t die straight away, from being stoned, forgiving those who had killed him as he lay dying.

That is the James who probably wrote this letter. The letter is different from many other letters in the New Testament, particularly from those written by Paul.

Martin Luther, the great reformer, had real problems with this letter of James. Martin Luther’s great biblical rediscovery was that we are saved, not by what we do, but simply by trusting in Jesus. We can never earn God’s love, and we can never earn salvation. As Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians; “8–9It is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts[1]”

Luther called James’ letter a ‘straw epistle’ because it contained none of Paul’s theology of grace. For Luther this was vitally important, but the Letter of James is all “Do this, do that, don’t do this, don’t do that, control your tongue, don’t Get angry, look after widows and orphans”

I think the church owes a great debt to Martin Luther, but I think he’s wrong about this letter.

You can tell what is important to an author by the words they use and the way they repeat them for emphasis. There is one word that James uses in this passage four times. It’s clearly central to him. What’s the word? The word is ‘word’, as in the word of God.

So let’s look at what James is saying when he uses the word ‘word’.

In verse 18 James says; “By [God’s] own will he brought us into being through the word of truth”. Somehow, we were brought into being through the word of truth, by God, for a specific purpose. It’s not something we did ourselves.

Now ‘bringing us into being’ could refer to creation, but James means more than this I think. James isn’t referring to us as humans but to us as Christians. Christians are Christians, because God first reached out to us, through his word, and we heard him, however dimly, and we responded however weakly. This is God’s grace, his gift to us, and it’s a blessing.

Secondly, in verse 21 James says “So get rid of every filthy habit and all wicked conduct. Submit to God and accept the word that he plants in your hearts, which is able to save you. [2]

If the first mention was a blessing; God brought us into being through his word. This reference is a command. Get rid of every filthy habit and all wicked conduct, and accept the word that God has planted in us.

Now we might not think we have filthy habits and we might not think our conduct is particularly wicked, but this letter is written to every believer.

It’s not a specific letter, written to specific people, struggling with specific problems in a specific place. James doesn’t say “Those of you with filthy habits, get rid of them” He’s speaking to all of us and he’s speaking of himself too.

We all have filthy habits and we all act wickedly. That’s no less true because we generally don’t shout them from the roof tops. God knows our hearts. How are we saved? By trying really, really hard? No, by submitting to God, and accepting the word that he plants in our hearts. It is the word, the truth of who God is and what Jesus has done that saves us. This is God’s grace, his gift to us.

In verse 22, James says “Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice[3]”

This is a warning. There is a real danger in thinking that because we are saved by God, and God will forgive us whatever we do it doesn’t really matter what we do. If we knew that we were going to pass an exam whatever we wrote, would we bother to do our revision for it? Probably not. James reminds us that we need to do more than just hear the word we have to put what it says into practice.

Human beings are very good at self-deception. James likens this to looking in a mirror and as soon as we have, forgetting what we look like. James isn’t encouraging vanity. We look in a mirror so that we can take care of our appearance, so we can check our hair, so we can shave, so we can apply our make-up. Probably not the last two at the same time.

If that’s what we’re using a mirror for we need to be very honest with ourselves. The point is to look for flaws which require correction. There’s no point looking in a mirror if we just look at ourselves and think “Oh you’re lovely” and then go out with our hair all over the place.

James tells us that true religion, the real religion that pleases God, is to take care of widows and orphans, to care for the powerless and voiceless. It is what pleases God and it’s what Jesus when he walked on earth. As Christians and as a local church it’s what we should be about, what people should see is us taking care of those forgotten and neglected by society.

But it’s not what saves us.

We are saved by the grace of Jesus and as a consequence of being saved we are commanded to care for widows and orphans, for the weak and voiceless. We shouldn’t make the mistake on focusing so much on our relationship with God, that we forget to do what God says is important, and we shouldn’t spend so much time working for God, that we forget to nurture our relationship with the God whose word saves.

There’s a quote that we’ve started saying a lot here. It was Bob who found it, and it’s worth repeating now. It’s by Teresa of Avila

“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

Lord may we be your hands, your feet, your eyes and your body. Use us to care for widows and orphans and all the weak and neglected people around us. But may we never forget that you have saved us. As you love us, may we serve you in Love. In Jesus name. Amen.

[1] American Bible Society. (1992). The Holy Bible: The Good news Translation (2nd ed., ). New York: American Bible Society.

[2] American Bible Society. (1992). The Holy Bible: The Good news Translation (2nd ed., ). New York: American Bible Society.

[3] American Bible Society. (1992). The Holy Bible: The Good news Translation (2nd ed., ). New York: American Bible Society.