It’s important to note that Biblical concepts do not always fit into the nutshell of one or two verses.  Sometimes, they don’t even fit into a chapter. I had a Sunday School teacher back in college who used to joke that the monk who divided up the Bible into chapters and verses must have been riding a balky mule at the time. This was the only thing that would explain the odd breaks that sometimes occur.  This is such a section. The chapter is meaningful, but it is more meaningful with the transition sentences that are in the flanking chapters.

The roots of the white spruce are vitally important to their existence. Without the roots, the trees will die.  However, if the tree doesn’t produce fruit, something in the chemistry of the tree signals the roots that it’s time to die.  So you see, faith provides the sustenance for works and works provides the evidence for faith. (And, the spruce buds probably represent the world, but that's a different lesson!).

Evangelicals are often accused of holding a singular notion about salvation – that it rests solely upon faith with nothing surrounding it.  True faith alone, by which humans take part in Christ's righteousness, atonement, and grace, saves our souls. There is no doubt of this. The concept is found everywhere in Scripture, particularly in Paul’s epistles. James did not disagree, but he did explain that true faith produces holy fruits, and its effect on our works shows it to be true.  Mere assent to any form of doctrine or historical fact wholly differs from this saving faith. A religious profession may gain the good opinion of people who value such things and might even bring worldly good things to the confessor, but what profit will it be, for any to gain the whole world, and to lose their souls? (Matthew 8:36)  Can such a faith save us? (James 2:14)

I love when the various books of the Bible work together!  To me, it is among the myriad proofs that God exists.  Something beyond the authors, who were many and diverse, controlled the message so that Paul can speak about faith and emphasize that it is faith and not adherence to the Law that saves us while James can write about faith and emphasize that it will bear fruit.  Two authors talking about different aspects of the same topic. Now, if that doesn’t present evidence for a deity who was in charge of the whole thing, I don’t know what does!

We have just finished the Roll Call of Faith in Hebrews 11 and now we turn to James, where two members of the roll call are mentioned in a different light.  My next post will be on Paul’s handling of the subject.  As all the Bible works together, it is nice to be able to look at these three authors address the roll call from different angles rather than to hold the members in a one-dimensional view. Human beings are rarely one dimensional. The God Who created us in His image has dimensions we can’t imagine!

“Foolish man! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?

"Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was perfected. So the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness, and he was called God’s friend.  You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. 

"And in the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by a different route?

"For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”  James 2:20-26

All things should be accounted profitable or unprofitable to us (Romans 8:28 and I Cor 6:12), as they tend to forward or hinder the salvation of our souls. This passage of Scripture plainly shows that an assent to the gospel, without works, is not faith. We do well when we say “Yes, Lord”, but we haven’t really said “Yes” until we’ve obeyed. There is no way to show we really believe in Christ, but by diligence in good works, motivated from the gospel, and for gospel purposes.

Conceited men may boast to others of that which they really don’t possess.  It’s not enough to just assent in faith, but we must consent also.  We are called not only to assent to the truth of the word, but consent to take Christ as Savior and Lord. True faith is not an act of the understanding only, but a work of the whole heart. That a justifying faith cannot be without works is shown from two examples, Abraham and Rahab.

Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. (Hebrews 11, Romans 4:1-4).  Faith, producing such works, advanced him to a favored status. We see then, Jas 2:24, how that by works a man is justified (made just as if he’d never sinned), not by a bare opinion or profession, or believing without obeying, but by having such faith that produces good works. Remember that James earlier said trials produce faith in believers.  To deny Abraham his own reason, affections, and interests was enough to try his beliefs. He was asked to kill his son, but he was not required to do so.  His assent to God followed by his consent in following God’s commands was all that were required.  Faith made him righteous; works provided evidence of that righteousness.

Observe the wonderful power of faith in changing sinners! Rahab's habitual lifestyle was that of a prostitute.  In Canaanite culture she would have been a needed, but outcast member of society, valued only for her means of worshipping the Canaanite fertility gods. She wasn’t a priest. She was a pawn, but she had some small value in that regard because sex was one way to worship Baal.  To the Israelites, she was a good reason to gather stones.  Prostitutes destroyed families and spread disease. The Israelites were commanded to remove them from their society.  Yet, Rahab had seen the evidence for the Living God of Israel (Joshua 2) and she had faith that He would destroy her people.  Her conduct toward the spies proved her faith to be a living faith; she believed with her heart, not merely by an assent of the understanding. Sure, she had facts to back up her belief. Israel’s reputation had preceded them. They were a scary army, but her assent of that knowledge was followed by the recognition that their God was mightier than the gods of her people.  Having assented to this knowledge, she then consented to obey God by helping the spies escape.  Let us then take heed, for the best works, without faith, are dead (or useless).  Had Rahab merely conspired with the spies to escape, she would have been a traitor to her people. It was her newfound faith, confessed to them, in the Living God of Israel that changed her heart.

Works without faith lack depth and character. There’s a United Way booster in my town whose eye is always on how much money he’s raised and how much money he can raise. He resents other non-profits for “taking money” from United Way.  Sure, United Way does good things, but it doesn’t do all the good things. This man comes off as shallow and mean-spirited, even as he raises money for a worthy cause.

By faith any thing we do is really good because it is done in obedience to God, with the aim of pleasing Him. Conversely, when belief lacks fruit, it is evidence of root death.  Faith is the root, good works are the fruits; and we must see to it that we have both. This is the grace of God in which we stand. We should be firm in this; there is no middle state. Every one must either live as God's friend or His enemy. Living to God, as it is the consequence of faith (which justifies and saves) obliges us to act solely in God’s interest because we love Him and are grateful for what He has done for us.

It does not work the other way around. Had Abraham simply gone out and killed his son (even in a ritualistic manner) expecting a reward from God, he would have been condemned by his covenant with God as a child sacrificer. His actions, up to the moment of finding the ram in the bushes, were those of a madman.  It was his faith that God would provide a sacrifice other than Isaac that saved him.

Similarly, Rahab was a traitor to her people if she merely sided with the Israelite spies to save her own neck. Good sense says you don’t trust a potential double agent and Joshua certainly seems brighter than that.  We know God is.  It was Rahab’s confessed faith in the God of Israel that made the difference for.  She was saved and is found in the roll call because of her faith. Her actions up to the moment of her confession were those of a traitor. The confession of faith placed her on the side of the angels.

I will reiterate this because I think it is vital to an understanding of faith.  Faith is what saves us.  Paul shows this again and again in his writings. He was dealing with the heresy of Judaizing. He needed to emphasize this aspect of our relationship with God. Faith and faith alone is what saves us.  Works are the evidence of that faith. If a tree doesn’t produce fruit, we suspect the root is dead. If a person claims to be a Christian and doesn’t produce fruit, we suspect that their “faith” is mere belief without consent to be filled with Jesus.  Faith is more than belief; it’s turning to God with your whole heart and your willingness to be led by Him. However, all our works are as filthy rags, Isaiah told us. We must beware that are works are motivated by genuine faith and not simply as a substitute for a relationship with Jesus Christ.

There is a difference. We need to know what that is!

My grandfather was a farmer and my mother was a gardener.  I am really not either, but I have enough knowledge from them to grow stuff.  A while back my husband brought home a cutting from a tree and followed instructions from his friend in order to create another tree. He stripped the bark off the end and dipped it in rooting solution and then put the cutting in a bucket of light dirt.  For a few days the little tree seemed to do pretty well. The leaves remained green and my husband thought he’d end up with a pretty chokecherry tree from this deal, but then the leaves all fell off and the tree dried out.  What happened, BJ wanted to know. When we unpotted the tree, I saw immediately that the roots hadn’t formed. BJ used some rooting solution I had made a week before for another project and apparently, it had gone bad. The few immature roots hadn’t had enough companions to nourish the little tree.

For want of a good root, the tree died.  Faith is the root of salvation.  Without it, the Christian cannot exist.  We can live in our human bodies, of course, but we do so possessing dead men’s souls. The strong root of faith produces a healthy tree – a saved soul.  Like our abortive chokecherry, if the root is strong, the tree is healthy and will produce fruit.  The fruit of salvation is good (Christian works).

It is a misunderstanding that Paul did not value Christian works and that his writings in Romans contradict James’ epistle.  The divisions of Corinth come to mind in this discussion.  “I am of James and will show you my faith by my works,” one person says, while the other says “I am of Paul and I don’t need works.”  This is a fallacious argument. The Bible is not divided against itself!  It is not the messages that are in disagreement, but only those who read their own presuppositions into Scripture. Paul did not deny the value of good works in the life of a Christian.  James did not deny the role of faith in becoming a Christian.  Both writers believed in salvation by faith with works as a fruit of faith. They simply emphasized different parts of the issue depending on their audience.

James wrote to Christians at a time in the Christian era (about AD 48) when he could afford to assume that anyone actually caring to read what he wrote was a Christian. He wrote to Jewish Christians who had come out of Judaism.  Although the gospels hadn’t been written yet (histories usually take a few decades to develop) these Christians knew the gospel story. It had been imparted by oral tradition. They knew that Jesus has argued with the Pharisees about their picky little rules.  They probably understood that there was a difference between the picky rules of the Pharisees and the “law of freedom”, as James would called what Paul termed the “law of the spirit.”  Grasping that the Pharisees with their rules were dead men walking, it is easy to imagine that James’ audience naturally emphasized faith over works. James wanted to assure that they understood that faith was the root of their salvation and works were the fruit.

Paul wrote a number of years later (Galatians, perhaps his first letter, was written in the 50s).  The heresy of Judaizing was a growing concern. Judaizers emphasized the fruit and said it needed to be the root.  Forms and formalities were the important issues to these heretics.  Paul, seeking to fight this heresy, emphasized the root.  Without a good root, the fruit won’t be good. Take care of the root and the fruit will flow naturally.

“They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”  Romans 3:24  “For we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law.” (Romans 3:28)  “Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace (or reconciliation) with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Also through Him, we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1-2)

In unequivocal terms, Paul wrote that salvation comes by faith.  Faith is our entrance into God’s grace and it is the motivator of all that we do.

Throughout the letter to the Romans Paul speaks of how Christ took rotten human beings and reconciled them to Himself through faith.  For this reason, we “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.  For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law but under grace.”  Romans 6:12-14

Here is Paul’s call to holy living.  He doesn’t focus on the acts, but on a right relationship with Jesus. We have a choice to obey our urges to sin or control ourselves. Paul emphasized, however, that this is done through grace, not following rituals and rules, but living in close approximation with God.

“Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death."  Romans 8:1-2

James called his readers to act out their faith through holy living.  Paul called his readers to let their faith power them in holy living.  This is not a disagreement. It is two slightly different views of the same issue.

I am not of James.  I am not of Paul. I seek understanding of Jesus through the writings of these men, but I don’t worship one or the other. I worship Jesus Christ. I find value in these writers because of their relationship with Jesus. I will follow their inspired admonitions to live my faith out loud through Christian works. I recognize that the works apart from Jesus will not save me. They are only evidence of the faith in Jesus that has already saved me. My root is strong and it produces good fruit.

My brother drilled a well on his property in the spring because his old well was collapsing. My family was helping him with this major project. When we got down to the depth of the old well, there was no water to be found just yards from the old well head.  My step-niece, who is pretty new up here and thus unfamiliar with domestic water wells, wanted to know why we weren’t done if we were at the right depth.  To which our 14-year-old daughter replied, “A well with no water is a hole in the ground.”

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can his faith save him?  

“If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food,
 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?

“In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.
 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.”[Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith from my works.  You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe—and they shudder.

"Foolish man! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?”  James 2:14-20

Some people think that Paul and James contradict each other in their teachings about faith and works. James 2:14-20 says that people are justified by faith and works, not by faith alone. However, closer examination shows that James used the word “works” to refer to what Paul called “good works.”  What is meant by this term is Christian ministry stemming from faith as opposed to what Paul called “works” which is man’s attempt to reach God through his own effort.  They were saying the same thing, but in different ways.

James and Paul were both dealing with people who wanted to rely on works of the law for their salvation. James was dealing with Jews who professed to believe in Jesus Christ but whose lives often showed a miserly sort of faith. Wedded to the Mosaic Law prior to their salvation, they had not yet fully embraced the “law of freedom” as James called it.  Paul was dealing with Gentiles who did not have a background of Mosaic Law to know what was right and what was wrong. It is important to note that James wrote several years before Paul did.  He was probably aware of the hubbub caused by Peter baptizing Gentiles in Caesarea, but he was not yet dealing with the heresy of Judaizing.  That was a year away when Paul and Barnabas would come to Jerusalem and ask for a ruling by the apostles on the topic of Gentile circumcision.  The controversy received a ruling, but the ruling didn’t stop the heresy. That continued to be spread throughout Asia Minor and, at one point, Peter fell into this heresy when he refused to eat with Gentiles in Antioch.  Paul confronted him on it and Peter adjusted his attitude to what God wanted. Because of this heresy, Paul emphasized that sinners cannot make themselves acceptable to God by keeping the works of the law. Dealing with a different situation, James emphasized that true faith shows itself in good works, a point Paul that also made. They were ultimately saying the same thing, just with different emphasis because they were in different circumstances.

The Lord knows the works of His people. He commends His churches for their good works and rebukes them for the works that are not worthy of His people (Rev. 2:2,5,9,13,19,23,26; 3:1,2,8,15). God does not judge according to outward appearances but according to works (1 Pet. 1:17; Rev. 20:12-13; 22:12).  We think of works as having an outward appearance, but God knows whether these works are derived from faith (and are thus good works) or from human motives (and are thus merely works of the law).  Although true believers are accepted into God’s eternal kingdom by grace through faith, God will condemn those whose profession is proved false by their evil works (Matt. 7:21-23). True believers are saved because their lives are built on the solid foundation of Christ Himself. They will be rewarded for good works but any unworthy works will not survive God’s judgment (1 Cor. 3:10-15).

The Scripture specifically says some things that are noteworthy.

James gives an example of religion without works. The poor are all around us and we bless them with our words, but we don’t give them food or clothing.  Thanks for the blessing, but can I trade it in for a turkey sandwich?

“In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.” 

I would note that “kata” (the Greek word for alone (by itself)) has a connotation of “private”.  Those who say their faith is “private” are ignoring this verse. Faith without works is indeed private because outside observers can’t see the evidence. “Private” faith is rightfully suspected of being dead faith – or mere assent to the knowledge of God’s existence without consent to His leadership.

Faith that does not result in works is evidence of a false faith.  “The demons also believe—and they shudder.”  Demons have no choice but to believe in God. They’ve met Him face-to-face as it were. But their belief in God only produces fear.  They do not accept that Christ is savior and they don’t confess it. They have no faith beyond their belief.  Their works are evil. And, they know they are bound for eternal destruction.  It makes them afraid.

In the same way, someone who has religion and claims that this saves him has an intellectual belief in God.  This empty sort of faith will not result in salvation, but in damnation.  “If your body walks an aisle, but your mind and spirit remains in the pew, you aren’t saved, you’ve just gotten some exercise,” to quote a Navajo shouting evangelist I know.

“But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.”  Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith from my works."

The faith versus works argument was not new to James.  He’d heard it before. He quotes it here.  He basically says “Show me the evidence for your faith.”  He challenges those who want an empty religion without obligations to show the evidence of faith. It is works that provide us with the evidence of faith.

“Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?”

Some will note that the Holman Christian Standard Bible uses the word “useless” instead of dead.  A friend who is a Biblical Greek scholar assured me, and showed me in resources such as Strongs, that “nekros” can be translated “ineffective” in some circumstances.  We’ve all said “my leg feels dead” when we sat on it too long. It’s not really dead, but don’t try walking on it right now or over you’ll go. Same basic idea.  Within the context of the Scripture, “useless” is – in his learned opinion – a closer translation of the term.

It’s a fine line that we walk between faith and works.  Faith is our relationship with Jesus Christ.  We have believed that He is the Messiah (Savior) and we have confessed that – making us right with God and saved through confession.  Romans 10:9-10 tells us this.  Salvation is a past event that has forward-reaching power for us. Now we move forward into sanctification (what evangelicals call “becoming more like Christ”).  Some who call themselves Christian would rather place this step first.  Become more like Christ and then be saved.  They feel this is more worthy of God’s consideration.  But, it’s not how God set things up. We were never worthy and we will never become worthy.  Jesus’ sacrifice was needed to make us worthy.  The rich young ruler in (Matthew 19, Mark 14, Luke 10,) wanted to be more like Christ, but he lacked the faith to do so.  “With man it is impossible, with God all things are possible.”  Faith is about being willing to let go of everything you hold precious in order to grasp Jesus. Think Abraham laying his only son on the altar. You can’t come through the eye of the needle clinging to your old life.  Note that the camel is free of his burdens when he threads the needle, but he does so on his knees.

The Jewish Christians that James was writing to had already accepted Christ as Savior. They wanted to know how to become more like Christ.  James told them “let you faith motivate good works.”

We must be careful not to claim the evidence of faith as the foundation of faith.  It was pouring down rain the day we drilled that well and we were standing in water up to our shins.  That water was not evidence of the well.  It was coming from the wrong source – the sky, not the ground. The rain did not prove the existence of water in the well.  Neither did the well hole prove the efficacy of the well.  Had my brother stopped drilling at the level of his old well, he would have had a dry well.  There would be a well there, but without water, it’s just a hole in the ground.   Ten more feet of drilling and we encountered water – the evidence of the well.

Metaphorically speaking, the well is faith and the water is works.  A well that does not produce water is useless.  The rain did not prove the well any more than works that are motivated by reasons other than saving faith will save you.  All the water in the world would not prove the well if it came from the wrong source.  Only when the water bubbled up the well pipe had the well been proved.  All the works in the world apart from Jesus are not evidence of faith because they stem from another place – fear, social pressure, something.  Works that stem from faith are the evidence of faith and are Godly (good) works.

Faith that does not show evidence is useless and ultimately suspect.  Christians should desire to do the work of the One Who sent them.  If some claim the name of Jesus, but say things like “bless you, go and be filled”, but don’t part with that turkey sandwich, it’s likely that they have no faith at all. The works don’t save us; they just present evidence of our salvation.

I want to pause for a moment’s reflection before continuing with the study of James.

It is important to acknowledge that this was a letter to people.  It is not chunks of thought thrown down in random lumps to be studied separately.  There is an overall theme that is examined within the letter.

The general content of the letter is a call to holiness of life. That is the larger theme of this letter.  James specifically addresses the components of lifestyle holiness, but it is important not to put too much weight on any one passage.  As James explains in the passage on favoritism, we are called to keep all the Law, so if we steal, but do not murder, we are as guilty as if we also had murdered.  We’re not halfway okay because we only do one sin rather than the other.  Similarly, God speaks to us with purpose. He is not just flinging words at his inspired apostles so their readers can amuse themselves.  The apostles wrote on a topic because that topic is important to God. While there are especially poignant passages that teach us a lot, these are of no greater importance than the more mundane passages. Also, just because we prefer certain theology to other theology doesn’t mean it’s more correct.  We are to adjust what we believe to Jesus Christ, not the other way around.

So, let us look at what we have learned so far from the Epistle of James and what we will be studying in the near-future.

I.                    True religion is developed by hard times

A.    Joy is the correct response to trials because when our faith is tested   we learn endurance and mature endurance enables us to be perfect, complete and lack in nothing. Trials help us to grow closer to God, which is a reason to rejoice.

B.     Wealth may be a test of faith, but it is not a proof of faith.

II.                 True religion is initiated by faith.

A.    Salvation by faith is a gift from God, as are all good gifts.  God is never the author of evil, including our sins and the temptations that drive us to them

B.     Salvation as an expression of God’s will is related to God’s Word.  We are to receive God’s Word.  We are to do God’s Word, not just hear it.

C.     Saving faith does not show favoritism but shows love to all.  Christians are to judge with mercy and rule by the law of freedom (grace). 

III.             True religion is guided by wisdom, but not by earthy wisdom, which produces evil attitudes and actions. A wise person in God has a life characterized by moral behavior.

IV.              True religion is demonstrated by works .  All professions of faith are empty if not producing love and justice for others.

V.                True religion is expressed in prayer. Every Christian has an important responsibility in this regard.

Christians are to live holy lives. We may learn how to do that through the study of James and other books of the Bible.  We should always be willing to listen to God and to correct our religion in response to His faith.