Welcome back to our series on James: a Mosaic of Wisdom for our walk with Jesus. This week we are diving into the second half of the second chapter and learning about how our faith should produce actions rather than being only words. James 2:14-26 reads like this:
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless[a]? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
This passage is sometimes challenging because it can lead us to believe that we just need to do things in order to be saved. We just need to be nice to others, spread the love, pay it forward, and we are good. This is a very common belief in our world today, and while it is better than some of the more narcissistic tendencies in our culture, it is not what James is advocating here. So what is James talking about?
James is talking about true belief, the kind that is not just nice words but that leads to an action that reflects what we say. There is a natural production of "fruit," or visible results, that happens when we are rooted in Jesus.
James is asking the question... If my response to faith is not action, is my faith truly alive?
If I say I love Jesus, but I am unkind or judgmental or self-centered or greedy, is my faith true or is it just empty words?
What we allow to take root within us, within our belief systems and habits, tends to produce a certain kind of fruit. That is why the apostle Paul gave us the list of the "fruit of the Spirit:" love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, so that we can compare our own actions and impulses to see if it lines up. If the fruit we are seeing is not the fruit of the Spirit, we have some inner searching to do!
Now, we have established that that faith without action, faith without "fruit", is not true faith. But fruit without a root in Jesus is also not the answer. Divorcing faith and works is a problem and can result in legalism, because we are not relying on the wisdom and guidance of the Spirit to know how to walk in faith. Works without faith centers our understanding of right and wrong and removes Jesus from the equation.
In summary, belief is not all that Jesus wants; He also wants us to have a faith that is healing and leads to shalom. More than a disembodied faith, He desires that we would live out our faith in our lives!
Original sermon by Noelle Fillmore
Blog adaptation by Allison Freytes
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